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THE MYSTERY OF 
JOAN OF ARC 





JOAN 
From the sculptured head in the Musée du Trocadero, Paris. 





par OF 
Q 






NO 23 1925 


a 
are Pa 


THE MYSTERY 
JOAN OF ARC 


SOL agro, se 


BY LEON DENIS 


AUTHOR OF “APRES LA MORT” 
“LA GRANDE ENIGME,” ETC. 


TRANSLATED BY 


ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, M.D., LL.D. 


PRESIDENT D’HONNEUR DU COMITE EXECUTIF 
DE LA FEDERATION SPIRITE 


NEW YORK 
E. P.. DUTTON AND COMPANY 


First EDITION. > N'HNTO2S 


Printed in Great Britain by 
Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 





TRANSLATOR’S. PREFACE 


Uxriz one has experienced it one can hardly 
realise the difficulty which lies in the adequate 
translation of a French book, dealing with a 
subtle and delicate subject. Only then does 
one understand that not only the words, but 
the whole method of thought and expression 
are different. A literal translation becomes 
impossibly jerky and staccato, while a para- 
phrase has to be very carefully done, if one has 
a respect for the original. M. Leon Denis 
has given me an entirely free hand in the 
matter, but I love and admire his book so much, 
that I earnestly desire to reproduce the text 
as closely as possible. I should not have 
attempted the task were it not that, apart from 
the literary and historical aspects of the work, 
the psychic side is expounded by a profound 
student of such things, and calls therefore for 
some equivalent psychic knowledge upon the 
part of the translator. It is to be hoped, 
however, that the reader who is ignorant of 
psychic matters, or out of sympathy with 
them, will still be able to recognise the beauty 
of this picture done by one who had such love 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE 


for his subject that he followed the maid every 
inch of the way from Domremy to Rouen. 
M. Denis actually lives in Tours, and is familiar 
with Orleans, so that he has mastered the local 
colour in a most unusual way. 

His treatment of his heroine is so complete 
that there is no need for me to say anything 
save to express my personal conviction that, 
next to the Christ, the highest spiritual being 
of whom we have any exact record upon this 
earth is the girl Joan. One would kneel 
rather than stand in her presence. We are 
particularly fortunate in the fact that we have 
fuller and more certain details of her life and 
character than of any celebrity in medizval or, 
perhaps, in modern history. The glorious 
life was so short and so public, that there was 
no time or place for shadows or misunder- 
standings. It was spent under the very eyes 
of the world, and is recorded in the verbatim 
accounts of the most searching cross-examina- 
tion that ever a woman endured, supplemented 
by an equally close enquiry when her character 
was rehabilitated a generation after her death. 
On that occasion over a hundred witnesses who 
had known her were put upon oath. Apart 
from the question of Christ’s divinity, and com- 
paring the two characters upon a purely human 
plane, there was much analogy between them. 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE 


Each was sprung from the labouring class. 
Each proclaimed an inspired mission. Each 
was martyred while still young. Each was ac- 
claimed by the common people and betrayed 
or disregarded by the great. Each excited the 
bitter hatred of the church of their time, the 
high priests of which in each case conspired for 
their death. Finally, each spoke with the 
same simple definite phrases, short and strong, 
clear and concise. Joan’s mission was on the 
surface warlike, but it really had the effect of 
ending a century of war, and her love and 
charity were so broad, that they could only be 
matched by Him who prayed for His murderers. 

The text will show that M. Denis is an 
earnest student of psychic matters, with a 
depth of experience which forbids us to set 
his opinions easily aside. His other works, 
especially ‘ Après la Mort,” show how extensive 
have been his studies and how deep his con- 
victions. There are portions of this work 
which bear traces of psychic influence, and 
he has even felt that at times he had some 
direct inspiration. This is a point which will 
seem absurd to some, and will cause even those 
who are sympathetic to suspend their judgment 
until they know more clearly what was the 
exact evidence which led M. Denis to such a 
conclusion. But if we omit or discount this 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE 


personal claim there still remains a general 
statement which links Joan up with our 
modern psychic knowledge, finds a definite 
place for her therein, and succeeds for the 
first time—where Anatole France and others 
have failed—in giving us some intelligible 
reason for the obvious miracle that a girl 
of nineteen, who could neither read nor write, 
and knew nothing of military affairs, was able 
in a few months to turn the tide of a hundred 
years’ war, and to save France from becoming 
a vassal of England. Her achievement was 
attributed by herself (and she was the soul 
of truth) to her voices and her visions. It is 
M. Denis’ task to show how these voices and 
visions fit into our present knowledge, and 
what were their most probable origin and 
meaning. 

I have omitted those continual footnotes 
and references to authorities which prove M. 
Denis’ accuracy and diligence but which break 
the narrative by drawing the reader’s eyes for 
ever to the bottom of the page. The serious 
student will find them in the original, and it 
will suffice in this version if it be stated that 
the main sources of information are to be 
found in the ‘‘ Procès de Condamnation,” the 
‘ Procès de Réhabilitation,’ Henri Martin’s 
‘ Histoire de France,” Delanne’s ‘“ Fantômes 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE 


des Vivants,” Denis’ “‘ Après la Mort” and 
‘ Dans JlInvisible,’ Cagny’s ‘“ Chronicles,” 
‘ Chronique de la Pucelle,” Quicherat’s works, 
Anatole France’s ‘‘ Vie de Jeanne,” Richers’ 
‘ Histoire de la Pucelle,” ‘ Registres du Parle- 
ment,’ and other documents. 

The beautiful literary touch of M. Denis 
would have won him fame, whatever topic 
engaged his pen, but he had very peculiar 
qualifications for this particular work, and 
though his views may be somewhat ahead of 
the present state of public knowledge and 
opinion, I am convinced that in the end his 
contribution to the discussion regarding Joan 
will prove to be the most important and the 
truest ever made. A great crisis of world 
thought and experience is at hand, and when 
it is past such views as those of M. Denis 
may form the basis upon which the reformed 
philosophies of the future will be based. 


ARTHUR Conan Dovyte. 


April, 1924. 


Aa: 
tro 

‘val whe 

‘i "D TR 





VIII. 


XIII. 


XV. 


CONTENTS 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE ; : 
INTRODUCTION . i À : 
DOMREMY . ; ; + 2 
THE SITUATION IN 1429 A ; 
THE INFANCY OF JOAN OF ARC ‘ 
VAUCOULEURS  . à : é 
CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS : 
ORLEANS . ‘ 3 ; ; 
REIMS s : : : : 
COMPIEGNE ; : : à 
ROUEN—-THE PRISON. 1 : 
ROUEN—THE TRIAL À ; : 
ROUEN—THE PUNISHMENT . : 
JOAN’S SECRET POWER . ‘ ; 
WHAT WERE HER VOICES? . : 
ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND 

MODERN. à : : à 
JOAN OF ARC AND THE MODERN 

PSYCHIC MOVEMENT À : 
A MESSAGE. i = . à 
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE . M : 


222 





ILLUSTRATIONS 


JOAN. : : à Frontispiece 
From the sculptured head in the Musée du Trocadéro, Paris 


FACING PAGE 


THE HOME OF JOAN AT DOMREMY . . 20 


THE VISION OF JOAN OF ARC ° . 34. 
From the painting by J. E. Lenepveu 


THE CATHEDRAL AT REIMS . : ‘ 66 


JOAN AT THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII 72 
From the painting by Ingres 


JOAN TAKEN PRISONER . . ° ° 82 
From a XVth Century MS. 


THE TOWER AT ROUEN CASTLE WHEREIN 


JOAN WAS THREATENED WITH TORTURE I I4 
After a drawing by E. H. Langlois 


CHARLES VII : h ; 3 ez 


From the Portrait at the Louvre 





THE MYSTERY OF 
JOAN OF ARC 


INTRODUCTION 


THE memory of Joan of Arc has never aroused 
such ardent and passionate controversies as 
have raged for the last few years around this 
great historical figure. One party, while 
exalting her memory, tries to monopolise 
her and to confine her personality within 
the limits of Catholic doctrine. A second, 
by means of tactics which are sometimes 
brutal, as in the case of Thalamas and Henri 
Bérenger, sometimes clever and _ learned, 
as in the case of M. Anatole France, tries to 
lessen her prestige and to reduce her mission 
to the proportions of an ordinary historical 
episode. 

Where shall we find the truth as to the part 
played by Joan in history ? As we read it, it 
is to be found neither in the mystic reveries of 
the men of faith nor in the material arguments 
of the positivist critic. Neither the one nor 

I 


INTRODUCTION 


the other seems to hold the thread which would 
lead them through the facts which form the 
mystery of this extraordinary life. 

To penetrate the mystery of Joan of Arc 
it seems to us necessary to study, and have 
practical knowledge of, psychic science. It 
is necessary to have sounded the depths of this 
invisible world, this ocean of life which envelops 
us, from which we all come at birth and into 
which we are replunged at death. 

How can writers understand Joan if their 
thoughts have never risen above terrestrial 
facts, looked beyond the narrow horizon of an 
inferior material world, nor caught one glimpse 
of the life beyond ? 

During the last fifty years a whole series of 
manifestations and of discoveries have thrown 
a new light upon certain important aspects of 
life, of which we have had only vague and un- 
certain knowledge. By close observation and by 
methodical experiment in psychic phenomena 
a far-reaching science is gradually being built 
up. 

The universe appears to us now as a reservoir 
of unknown forces of incalculable energy. 
An infinite vista dawns before our thoughts 
filled with forms and vital powers which 
escape our normal senses, though some mani- 
festations of them have been measured with 

2 


VERDICT OF THE HISTORIANS 


great precision by the aid of registering 
apparatus.’ 

The idea of the supernatural fades away, 
and we see Nature herself rolling back for ever 
the horizon of her domain. The possibility 
of an invisible organised life, more rich and 
more intense than that of humanity, but 
regulated by tremendous laws, begins to intrude 
itself. ‘This life in many cases impinges on 
our own and influences us for good or for 
evil. 

Most of the phenomena of the past which 
have been asserted in the name of faith and 
denied in the name of reason can now receive 
a logical and scientific explanation. The 
extraordinary incidents scattered over the story 
of the Maid of Orleans are of this order. Their 
comprehension is rendered the more easy by 
our knowledge of similar phenomena observed, 
classified and registered in our own time. 

These can explain to us the nature of the 
forces which acted in and around her, guiding 
her life towards its noble end. 


The historians of the nineteenth century, 
Michelet, Wallon, Quicherat, Henri Martin, 
Siméon Luce, Joseph Fabre, Vallet de Viri- 


1 Annales des Sciences psychiques, August, September, 


October 1907, February 1909. 
B 3 


INTRODUCTION 


ville, Lanéry d’Arc, have all agreed to exalt 
Joan as a marvellous heroine, and a sort of 
national Messiah. It is only in the twentieth 
century that the critical note has been heard. 
This has sometimes been bitter. M. Thalamas, 
Professor of the University, has even been 
accused by certain Catholic critics of treating 
this heroine as a wanton. He defends himself 
from this charge, and in his work “ Joan of Arc, 
History and Legend,” he does not go beyond 
the limits of honest and courteous criticism. 
His point of view, however, is that of the 
materialist : 


‘ It is not for us,” he says, ‘“‘ who look on 
all genius as an affair of the nerves, to reproach 
Joan for having magnified into saints what 
was really the voice of her own conscience.” 


But sometimes in his lectures he was more 
severe. At Tours on April 29th, 1905, he 
reminded us of the opinion of Professor Robin 
on Joan of Arc. She had never existed, he 
believed, and her whole story was a myth. 
M. Thalamas would not go so far as this, and 
recognised the reality of her life, but he 
attacked the deductions which her admirers 
had drawn from it. He exerted all his in- 
genuity to minimise what she had done with- 
out attacking her personal character. She 


4 


ANATOLE FRANCE 


had done nothing herself, or at least very 
little; for example, he held that it was the 
inhabitants of Orleans who had wrought their 
own deliverance. 

Henri Bérenger and other writers have 
followed in the same sense, and the official 
view of the question seemed to be coloured by 
their theories. In the history books of the 
primary schools they have taken from the 
story of Joan everything which could have a 
psychic meaning. It is no longer a ques- 
tion of voices; it is always the voice of con- 
science which guides her. The difference is 
a very real one. 

Anatole France in his artistic volumes 
does not go so far as this. He cannot get 
past the evidence as to the objective reality 
of the visions and of the voices. He is too well 
acquainted with the documentary evidence to 
deny that. His work is a faithful reconstruc- 
tion of the epoch. The appearances of the 
towns, of the countryside, and of the men of 
that epoch are painted with the hand of a 
master and with a fineness of touch which recalls 
Renan. Yet reading him leaves one cold and 
disappointed. His judgments are often falsi- 
fied by prejudice, and one is conscious, all 
through his pages, of a subtle and penetrating 
irony which is out of place in history. 


5 


INTRODUCTION 


In truth, an impartial judge may state that 
as Joan is exalted by the Catholics, she is at- 
tacked by the freethinkers less out of dislike for 
her than through a spirit of contradiction 
and of opposition. The heroine, dragged this 
way and that, becomes an object of contention 
to these rival parties. ‘There is exaggerated 
statement on both sides, and the truth, as so 
often happens, is between the two extremes. 

The vital question is the existence of occult 
forces, which the materialists ignore, of in- 
visible powers which are not supernatural and 
miraculous, but which belong to those domains 
of Nature which have not yet been fully ex- 
plored. Hence comes the inability to under- 
stand the work of Joan and the means by 
which it was possible for her to carry it out. 

Her critics have never realised the immensity 
of the obstacles which the heroine had to sur- 
mount. A poor girl, eighteen years old, the 
daughter of humble peasants, without educa- 
tion, ‘‘ knowing neither A nor B,” says the 
Chronicle, she had against her her own family, 
public opinion, and all the world. What could 
she have accomplished without that inspiration, 
that vision of the world beyond, which sus- 
tained her ? 

Imagine this child of the fields in the presence 
of great lords, ladies, and prelates; in the 


6 


DIFFICULTIES AND SUFFERINGS 


court and in the camps. She was a simple 
rustic from the depths of the country, ignorant 
of warlike things, and speaking a provincial 
dialect! She had to meet the prejudices of 
rank and birth, and the pride of caste. Later 
she encountered the mockeries and the bru- 
talities of soldiers accustomed to despise women, 
and unwilling to admit that a girl could com- 
mand and direct them. In addition there was 
the hatred of the men of the Church, who in 
those days saw in everything which was unusual 
the intervention of the devil. They never par- 
doned her for acting independently of their 
authority, and indeed that was the main 
Cause; Ole iter Tuin, 

Picture to yourself the prying curiosity of 
those debauched men amongst whom she had 
to live constantly. She had to endure fatigue, 
long hours on horseback, and the crushing 
weight of iron armour. She had also to lie on 
the ground during weary nights in the camp, 
harassed by all the worries and responsibilities 
of her arduous task. 

During her short career she surmounted all 
these obstacles, and out of a divided people 
split into a thousand factions, decimated by 
famine, and demoralised by all the miseries of 
a hundred years of war, she built up a victorious 
nation. 


7 


INTRODUCTION 


It is this wonderful episode which clever but 
blind writers have tried to explain by purely 
material and terrestrial means, lame explana- 
tions which go to pieces when one realises the 
facts! Poor blind souls—souls of the night, 
dazzled and dazed by the lights of the Beyond ! 
It is to them that the words of a thinker 
apply : | 

‘That which they know is nothing, but 
from what they do not know one could create 
a universe.” 

It is a deplorable thing that certain critics 
of our time feel impelled to minimise and drag 
down in a frenzy of dislike everything which 
rises above their own moral incapacity. 
Wherever a light shines, or a flame burns, one 
sees them running to pour water upon 
that which might give an illumination to 
humanity. 

Joan, ignorant of human forces, but with 
profound psychic vision, gave them a mag- 
nificent lesson in the words which she 
addressed to the examiners at Poitiers, 
which are equally applicable to the modern 
sceptics, the little narrow minds of our 
generation : 

‘I read in a book where there are more 
things than are found in yours.” 

Learn to read there, also, you sceptics, and 


THE ESSENTIAL COMMUNION 


to understand these problems; then you may 
speak with a little more authority about Joan 
and her work. 

When one studies the great scenes of history, 
one has to realise and reconstruct the souls of 
nations and of heroes. If you know how to 
love them they will come to you, these souls, 
and they will inspire you. It is the secret 
of the genius of history. That is what great 
writers like Michelet, Henri Martin, and others 
have done. They have gone out in sympathy 
to the genius of the race and of the era of 
which they wrote, and the breath of the 
Beyond runs through their pages. Others, 
like Anatole France, Lavisse, and his colla- 
borators, remain dry and cold in spite of 
their cleverness, because they have no grasp 
of that personal intimate communion where 
soul reacts upon soul. This communion 
is the secret of all great artists, thinkers and 
poets. Without it there is no imperishable 
work. 

A constant stream of inspiration flows down 
from the invisible world upon mankind. There 
are intimate ties between the living and the 
dead. All souls are united by invisible threads, 
and the more sensitive of us down here vibrate 
to the rhythm of the universal life. So was it 
with our heroine. 


9 


INTRODUCTION 


The critic may attack her memory; his 
efforts will never prevail. The story of the 
maid of Lorraine, like that of all the great 
agents of Providence, is graven on the eternal 
granite of history. Nothing can wipe out 
that record. It is one which indicates 
most clearly amid all the mixed tumult of 
life that sovereign hand which guides the 
world, 

To understand this life, and to realise 
the power which guided it, one must raise 
one’s mind to those great vital laws which 
govern the destiny of nations. Higher 
than all worldly events, and independent 
of the confused results of human action, 
one may trace an unswerving will which 
surmounts the resistance of individuals and 
works straight to the predestined end. 
Instead of losing itself in the confusion of 
life it seems rather to organise it, and to 
be the secret thread which leads through 
the maze. Gradually there appear a method 
and a system, which harmonise all things. 
Their inter-relation becomes more defined, 
while their contradictions fade away until 
one vast plan stands revealed. One realises, 
then, that there is a latent invisible energy, 
reacting upon all of us, leaving to each a 
certain measure of initiative, but enveloping 

10 


THE SUPREME LAW 


all of us and sweeping us towards a fixed 
goal, 

The apparent incoherences of life and of 
history depend upon the delicate equilibrium 
between the liberty of the individual and the 
authority of the Supreme Law. The deeper 
workings of these forces dawn gradually upon 
the man who can penetrate into the inner 
meaning of things. If it were not for this 
profound law, there would be nothing but 
disorder and chaos in that infinite jumble of 
efforts and of individual ambitions which make 
up the workings of the human race. 

From the days of Domremy to those of 
Reims the action of this law could be traced 
in the whole episode of the Maid. During 
that period man was working for the most 
part in harmony with the higher Law. After 
the incident of the consecration at Reims, 
ingratitude, wickedness, the intrigues of 
courtiers and of clerics, and the bad conduct 
of the King obscured the issue. To quote the 
expression of Joan, ‘‘ Men refused to do the 
will of God.” 

Selfishness, disorder and rapacity stood in 
the way of the higher action, which was at- 
tempted by Joan and her invisible helpers. 
The work of deliverance became more un- 
certain and was chequered by ill-fortune and 

II 


INTRODUCTION 


reverses. She followed out her mission none 
the less, but for its full accomplishment there 
would have been needed a greater length of 
time and ever harder exertions, with less 
disturbance from the forces of evil. 


As I have said, it is entirely from the point 
of view of our new scientific knowledge that 
I undertake this work. I repeat it so that none 
may misunderstand my intention. In trying 
to throw a little light on the life of Joan of 
Arc I am not actuated by any selfish motive 
or by any political or religious prejudice. My 
views are as far from those of the anarchists 
as from those of the ‘reactionaries! » [feam 
neither among the blind fanatics, nor among 
those who are ever incredulous. 

It is in the name of truth and of moral beauty, 
and out of love for our French Fatherland 
that I try to clear the noble figure of the 
inspired Maid from those shadows which have 
gathered round her. 

Under the pretext of analysis and of free 
criticism there has been, as I have already re- 
marked, a most regrettable tendency in our days 
to drag down everything which has been ad- 
mired in the past, and to alter and to tarnish 
what has been spotless and perfect up to 
now. 

12 


DUTY AND TRADITION 


It is a duty for any man, who can by pen or 
by voice exercise an influence on his fellows, 
to maintain and to defend whatever makes for 
the greatness of our country, and emphasises 
the noble examples that she has given to the 
world, and the scenes of beauty which enrich 
her past and shed a glory on her history. 

It is, on the other hand, an evil action to 
endeavour in any way to enfeeble our moral 
inheritance, the historical tradition of the 
people. Is it not the very thing which should 
give us strength in difficult hours? Is it not 
that which helps us to higher virility in mo- 
ments of danger? The tradition of a people 
and its history are the poetry of its life, its 
solace in trouble, its hope in the future. It is 
by the common ties which it creates between 
all our citizens that we feel ourselves to be the 
children of the one mother and members of a 
common fatherland. 

It is well that we should often recall the great 
scenes of our national history. It is full of 
striking lessons, and rich in wonderful examples. 
It is possibly superior in that respect to the 
history of any other nation. Wherever we 
explore the past of our race, everywhere and 
in every age we see great shadows hovering, 
and those shadows speak to us, and exhort us. 
From far-off centuries voices come down to us 


13 


INTRODUCTION 


recalling great memories, memories which, 
if they were always present in our souls, 
would suffice to inspire and to brighten 
our lives. But there comes the chill wind 
of scepticism, of forgetfulness, and of indif- 
ference. The preoccupations of our material 
life absorb us, and we end by losing 
touch with all that has been most great and 
most eloquent in the teaching of the past. 
Among these traditions there is nothing more 
touching and more glorious than that which 
deals with this extraordinary young girl who 
illuminates the darkness of the Middle Ages 
by her radiant presence, and of whom Henri 
Martin has said, ‘ Nothing like her has ever 
happened in the history of the world.” 

In the name of the past as well as of the 
future of our race, in the name of the work 
which still waits to be done, let us endeavour 
to keep in its entirety our moral inheritance. 
Let us try to keep from the soul of the people 
the intellectual poison which threatens it, 
and so to preserve for France that beauty and 
that strength which will make her great in 
hours of peril and restore to her all that 
prestige and self-respect which have been 
weakened by so many evil and sophistical 
theories. 


14 


WORLD-WIDE SYMPATHY 


It is only fair to recognise that the Catholic 
world—of recent years, at any rate—has done 
solemn homage to Joan. The orthodox have 
praised her, have glorified her, and have raised 
statues and temples in her honour. On the 
other hand, the Republican freethinkers have 
discussed a project of founding a national 
féte in her honour, which should be dedicated 
to the cult of patriotism. But neither party 
has really understood the true character of our 
heroine, nor grasped the inner meaning of her 
life. There are few men who have been in a 
position to analyse this great figure who stands 
so high above the days in which she lived, and 
seems more and more majestic as the years 
roll by. | 

There is in this wonderful life a depth which 
cannot be plumbed by minds which are not 
prepared beforehand for such a study. There 
are factors which must cause uncertainty and 
confusion in the thoughts of those who have 
not the necessary gifts to solve this great 
problem. Hence the sterile discussions and 
the vain polemics. But for the man who 
has lifted the veil of the invisible world 
the life of Joan is brilliantly clear. Her 
whole story becomes at once rational and 
intelligible. 

Observe how many different points of view 


15 


INTRODUCTION 


and contradictory ideas there are among those 
who praise the heroine! Some try to find in 
her some argument for their particular party. 
Others strive to draw some secular moral from 
her fate. Some again only wish to see in the 
triumph of Joan the exaltation of popular and 
patriotic sentiment. One may well ask if in 
this devotion which rises from all France there 
is not blended much which is egotistical and 
much which is mixed with self-interest. No 
doubt they think of Joan, and no doubt they 
love Joan, but at the same time, are they not 
thinking more of themselves and of their 
parties? Do they not search in that glorious 
life only for that which may flatter their own 
personal feelings, their own political opinions, 
or their own unavowed ambitions? ‘There are 
not many, I fear, who raise themselves above 
prejudice and above the interests of caste or 
of class. Few, indeed, try to penetrate the 
secret of this life, and among those who have 
penetrated, no one up to now, save in a most 
guarded way, has dared to speak out and to tell 
that which he saw and understood. 

As for me, if my claims for speaking of Joan 
of Arc are modest ones, there is at least one 
which I can confidently make. It is that I am 
free from every prejudice and from all desire 
either to please or to displease. With thoughts 

16 


SEARCH FOR THE CLUE 


free, and conscience independent, searching 
and wishing for nothing but truth, thus is it 
that I approach this great subject, and search 
for that mysterious clue which is the secret of 
her incomparable career. 


a7 


CHA PAE Ral 
DoMREMY 


I am a son of Lorraine, born like Joan in the 
valley of the Meuse, and my infancy was full 
of the memories which she had left in that 
country. 

During my youth I often visited the place 
where she lived. I loved to wander under the 
great vaults of our Lorraine woods, which are 
the remains of the ancient forests of the Gauls. 
Like her, I have many times listened to the 
harmonies of the fields and of the waste places, 
and I can claim that I too know the mysterious 
voices of space, those voices which, when one 
is alone, convey inspiration to the thinker 
and bring him in touch with the eternal 
verities. 

In my manhood I have followed across 
France the traces of her footsteps. I have 
made almost stage by stage the same tragic 
journey. I have seen the castle of Chinon 
where she was received by Charles VII, al- 
though it is now but a ruin. I have seen deep 
in Touraine the little Church of Fierbois 
whence she recovered the sword of Charles 

18 


DOMREMY 


Martel, and the caves of Courtineau in which 
she took refuge during the storm. ‘Then, too, 
I have seen Orleans and Reims and Compiégne 
where she was taken. There is not one place 
that she has passed where I have not meditated, 
prayed and mourned. Later, in this city of 
Rouen, above which her great presence seems 
still to hover, I terminated my pilgrimage. Like 
those Christians who walk step by step along 
the path which leads to Calvary I have fol- 
lowed the melancholy road which led the great 
martyr to her doom. 

More recently I returned to Domremy. I 
saw once again the humble cottage where she 
was born, the chamber with its narrow window 
where her virginal body, destined to so tragic 
a fate, has brushed the walls, the rustic press 
where she kept her belongings and the place 
where, in her ecstasy, she heard the voices. 
Then, too, I saw the church where she so 
often prayed. Thence, by the road which 
climbs the hill, I made my way to the holy 
place where she loved to dream. I saw the 
vine which belonged to her father, the Fairy 
tree, and the sweetly murmuring fountain. 
The cuckoo sang in the hoary wood. ‘The scent 
of the pine trees floated in the air. The 
breeze shook the foliage and murmured in the 
depths of the thickets. At my feet were spread 


c 19 


DOMREMY 


the laughing fields covered with flowers and 
watered by the windings of the Meuse. 

Opposite, the hill of Julien rose abruptly, 
reminding one of the Roman period and of 
the apostate Cesar; in the distance, wooded 
hills and deep valleys alternated to the hazy 
horizon. A deep sweetness, a peaceful serenity 
brooded over the whole of this country. It was 
truly a blessed place conducive to thought, a 
place where the vague harmonies of heaven 
seemed to mix with the gentle and distant 
murmurs of human life. Oh, dreaming soul of 
Joan, I tried hard to share the feelings which 
came to you, and I found them deep and real. 
They surged into my own spirit ; they filled me 
with a poignant rapture. And your whole life, 
that dazzling record, unrolled itself before my 
thoughts like a glorious panorama ending in 
an apotheosis of fire. For one moment I 
seemed to have actually lived this life, and 
that which my heart felt no human pen can 
describe. 

Behind me, an obtrusive monument and a 
discordant note in the symphony of subtle 
impressions, there rose the church and the 
theatrical group where Joan is seen on her knees 
at the feet of S. Michael and of two gilded 
Saints. The statue of Joan alone, rich in 
expression, touches one, interests one, and holds 

20 


‘KWAYWOdG LV NVOf JO ANOH AHL 








THE CHAPEL OF BERMONT 


one’s attention. A name is carved on the 
pedestal, that of Allar—himself a mystic. 

At some distance from Domremy, on a steep 
slope in the midst of the woods, lies the modest 
chapel of Bermont. Joan used to come here 
every week. She would follow the path which 
from Greux winds on to the plateau, passes 
under the trees and leads to the fountain of 
Thiébault. She would climb the hill in order 
to kneel before the ancient Madonna whose 
statue, dating from the eighth century, is still 
held in veneration. I walked, heavy with 
thought, along this picturesque path, and I 
traversed these tangled woods where the birds 
sing. The whole country is full of Celtic 
reminiscences. Our fathers have raised there 
an altar of stone. These sacred fountains and 
these gloomy shadows were once the witnesses 
of the Druidical ceremonies. The soul of 
Gaul lives and vibrates in such places. With- 
out doubt it spoke to the heart of Joan, even 
as she speaks to-day to the heart of her fellow- 
countrymen and of those who understand 
her. 

I went further. I wished to see every- 
thing which had to do with the life of Joan and 
everything which recalled her memory. There 
is Vouthon where her mother was born, and 
the little village of Beurey, which still contains 

21 


DOMREMY 


the dwelling of her uncle, Durand Lexart, 
he who helped her on her mission by leading 
her to Vaucouleurs and into the presence of 
the Lord of Baudricourt. The humble house 
is still there, with the carving of lilies decorating 
the threshold, but it has been changed into a 
stable. A rude chain holds the door. I undid 
it, and as I looked in a goat huddled in the 
shadows of the corner uttered its thin and 
plaintive bleating. 

I wandered all over this country, lost in my 
dreams, as I stood by the places which meant 
so much in the infancy of Joan. I traversed 
the narrow valleys, hemmed in by dark forests 
which open out from the Meuse. I stood lost 
in thought in the solitude at evening time, at 
the hour when the nightingale sings and when 
the stars first gleam in the depths of the heavens. 
I listened to all the vague sounds and the 
mysterious voices of Nature. In these places 
I felt myself far from man with an invisible | 
world close beside me. 

Then it was that a prayer came from the 
depth of my being; then it was that I evoked 
the spirit of Joan. Immediately I seemed to 
feel the strength and the sweetness of her 
presence. The air vibrated. There was a 
sense of brightness around me. Invisible wings 
seemed to be beating in the dusk. An unknown 

22 


THE MISSION OF JOAN 


melody floated down from above, lulled my 
senses and drew tears to my eyes. 

And the Angel of France inspired me with 
words which I here piously repeat, even as I 
received them : 


‘ Your soul rises up and is conscious at this 
moment of the protection which God throws 
over you. May your heart take courage, you 
who love and desire to serve our dear France, 
that France which I look down upon always 
as a protector and a mother with love and 
devotion. I was a simple Christian upon 
earth. I feel here in the Beyond the same 
emotions, the same need for prayer, but it 
is my wish that my memory be free and 
detached from all earth interests. I only 
give my heart and my remembrance to those 
who see in me the humble daughter of God, 
loving all those who live in this land of France 
and striving to inspire them with sentiments 
of love, of justice and of courage.” 


23 


CHAPTER II 
THE SITUATION IN 1429 


Wuat was the situation of France in the 
fifteenth century, at the moment when Joan 
of Arc appeared on the great stage of history ? 

The war against England had lasted for a 
hundred years. In four successive defeats the 
French nobility had been crushed and almost 
annihilated. From Cressy to Poitiers, and 
from the field of Agincourt to that of Verneuil, 
our chivalry had strewn the ground with its 
dead. The survivors had split into two rival 
parties whose quarrels enfeebled and desolated 
France.” The “Duke "of Orléans “had Steen 
assassinated by the retainers of the Duke of 
Burgundy, who in turn met his death a little 
later at the hands of the Armagnacs. 

All this went on under the very eyes of the 
enemy, who advanced step by step, invading the 
Northern Provinces. He had already for many 
years occupied La Guyenne. After a desperate 
resistance, in the course of a siege which sur- 
passed in horror anything that the imagination 
could conceive, Rouen had been compelled to 
surrender. Paris, the population of which had 


24 


NATIONAL MISERY 


been decimated by sickness and famine, was in 
the hands of the English. The Loire saw the 
enemy upon its banks. Orleans, the capture 
of which would mean that the stranger had 
seized the very heart of France, still held out, 
but for how long? 

Vast stretches of our country had been 
turned into desert. Cultivation had ceased. 
The villages were abandoned. One only saw 
weeds and thistles in the fields and the charred 
ruins of burnt houses. Everywhere were the 
traces of the ravages of war, death and 
desolation. 

The inhabitants of the country, in despera- 
tion, concealed themselves in caves, Others 
took refuge in the hills of the Loire, or sought 
protection in the towns, where they died of 
famine. Often to escape the soldiers these 
wretched people sought safety in the woods, 
organised themselves into bands and became 
as cruel as the brigands from whom they had 
fled. Wolves wandered round the outskirts 
of the towns, penetrated into them at night 
and devoured the corpses which had been left 
without burial. Such was “‘ La grande pitié 
qui est au royaume de France,” as her voices 
described it to Joan. 

Poor Charles VI in his madness had signed the 
Treaty of Troyes which disinherited his son 


25 


THE SITUATION IN 1429 


and made Henry of England heir to the throne. 
And so in the Cathedral of St. Denis, over the 
grave of the mad King, a herald proclaimed 
Henry of Lancaster to be King both of France 
and of England. 

The bodies of our Kings lying under the 
heavy slabs of their tombs may well have pal- 
pitated with shame and grief. The Dauphin 
Charles, dispossessed and called in derision 
‘ King of Bourges,” sank into a state of dis- 
couragement and lethargy. He lacked both 
resources and bravery. His courtiers treated 
in secret with the enemy. He himself planned 
to fly to Scotland or to Spain, renouncing the 
throne to which he thought that possibly he 
was not entitled, for he had his own doubts as 
to the legitimacy of his birth. One heard on 
all sides the lamentable plaint, the cry of 
agony from a people who were being thrust by 
the conquerors into their grave. France felt 
herself to be lost, and she was struck to the 
heart. A few more blows and she would 
descend into the great silence of death. What 
help could possibly come to her ? No earthly 
power could accomplish such a miracle as the 
resurrection of a people who had lost all hope. 
But it is another power, an invisible one, which 
watches over the destiny of nations. At the 
moment when everything seemed to have 


26 


“SHE IS COMING” 


crumbled it was this power which brought to 
a despairing people its redemption. Certain 
signs seemed to announce its coming. 

Among these signs a visionary, Marie of 
Avignon, had forced herself into the presence 
of the King. She had seen, she said, in her 
trances a suit of armour which Heaven was 
reserving for a young girl destined to save the 
Kingdom. 

On all sides one heard the ancient prophecy 
of Merlin which announced that a virgin 
liberator would come from a chestnut wood. 

And then, like a ray from Heaven in the 
midst of this night of desolation and of misery, 
Joan appeared. 

Hark! hark! from the depths of the fields 
and the forests of Lorraine, one hears the 
gallop of her horse. She is coming! She 
is coming to reanimate this despairing people, 
to renew their lost courage, to direct their 
resistance, to save France from death. 


27 


CHAPTER III 
THE INFANCY OF JOAN OF ARC 


Art the foot of the hills at the side of the Meuse 
a few cottages were grouped round a modest 
church. Green meadows, rising and falling, 
stretched away from them and the little river 
with its clear waters ran past them. On the 
slopes above them lay cultivated fields and 
vineyards, stretching up to the deep forest 
which rose like a wall across the summit of 
the hills, a forest full of mysterious murmurs 
and the singing of the birds. Out of it came 
suddenly, from time to time, wolves, the 
terror of the flocks; or soldiers, brigands and 
robbers, more dangerous than the wild beasts. 

This was Domremy, a village hitherto un- 
known, but which was to be famous throughout 
the whole world, on account of the child born 
there in 1412. 

To recall the history of this young girl is 
ever the best means of refuting the argu- 
ments of her enemies, That I will now do— 
bringing out, I hope, certain facts which have 
remained in the shadow, some of which have 
been revealed to me by psychic means. 

28 


CHILDHOOD 


Many works—masterpieces of research and 
of learning—have been written on the Maid 
of Lorraine. Far be it from me to pretend 
to equal them! But this book is distinguished 
by one characteristic trait. It is illuminated 
here and there by the very thoughts of the 
heroine. Thanks to messages obtained from 
her, the authenticity of which is absolutely 
satisfying, these pages become in part an echo 
of her own voice, and of the voices of the 
Beyond. It is for this reason that it has a 
claim upon the attention of the reader. 


Joan was not of high birth. The daughter 
of poor labourers, she spun wool by the side 
of her mother, or shepherded the flock in the 
fields of the Meuse when she was not accom- 
panying her father to the plough. 

She did not know how to read or write. She 
was absolutely ignorant of everything con- 
nected with war. She was a sweet and good 
child, loved by all, especially by the poor and 
the wretched, whom she was for ever helping 
and consoling. ‘To illustrate this there are 
some touching anecdotes. She willingly gave 
up her bed to some weary pilgrim, and passed 
the night on a bundle of straw in order to give 
repose to old folk tired by a long journey. 


29 


THE INFANCY OF JOAN OF ARC 


She nursed the sick, as in the case of 
Simon Musnier, her neighbour, who was 
prostrated with fever, laying him on her 
couch, and watching over him during the 
night. 

She was a dreamer, and loved in the evenings 
to watch the stars break out in the skies, or 
to follow during the day the changes of light 
and shade. The sound of the wind in the 
branches and in the thickets, the murmur of 
the springs, and all the harmonies of Nature, 
enchanted her. But most of all, she loved the 
sound of bells. It was to her like a greeting 
from Heaven to earth, and when in the peaceful 
eventide, far from the village in some little 
valley where her flock was gathered, she heard 
their silvery notes, their slow and calm vibra- 
tions marking the hour of her return, she 
would fall into a sort of ecstasy, into a long 
prayer in which her whole soul reached out 
towards Heaven. In spite of her poverty, she 
found the means of giving little gifts to the 
bell-ringer of the village, in order that he 
might continue the peal of his bells longer 
than usual. 

Full of the intuition that her coming on 
earth was for some great object, her thoughts 
plunged into the depths of the invisible, trying 
to trace the path on which she should go. 


30 


“VIVE LABEUR” 


‘ She searched her own mind,” Henri Martin 
tells us. 

Whilst the souls of her companions were im- 
prisoned in their fleshly garb, her whole being 
_ lay open to high influences. In the hour of 
sleep her spirit, freed from material ties, 
flowed out into the etheric spaces. There it 
strengthened itself in the powerful currents 
of life and of love, and on awakening preserved 
some intuition of its experience. ‘Thus, 
little by little, her psychic faculties awoke 
and grew. Soon they were to be brought 
into action. 

Meanwhile these impressions and these 
dreams did not lessen her love for work. 
Assiduous in her tasks, she did all that was 
possible to satisfy her parents and everyone 
else with whom she had to do. ‘‘ There is no 
blessing like work,” said she later, for she had 
experience that work is the best friend of man, 
his helper, his counsellor in life, his consoler 
in adversity, and that there is no true happiness 
without it. ‘Vive labeur,” is the motto which 
her family adopted and inscribed on her shield 
when the King included her in the ranks of the 
nobility. | 

Even in the little details of life Joan showed 
a keen sense of duty, a sure judgment and a 
clear vison, which rendered her superior to all 


31 


THE INFANCY OF JOAN OF ARC 


those around her. One could already see in her 
a wonderful soul, one of those deep and passion- 
ate spirits which come down upon earth to 
carry out a great mission. A mysterious in- 
fluence surrounded her. Voices spoke in her 
ears and in her heart. Invisible beings in- 
spired her, directed her acts, and guided her 
steps. What was it that these voices com- 
manded ? Imperious orders were given to her 
from the Beyond. She was to give up this 
life of peace. This poor child, seventeen 
years of age, was to dare the tumult of the 
camps, at a time when too often soldiers 
were mere bandits. She was to quit all—her 
village, her father and her mother, her flock, 
everything that she loved—to hasten to the 
help of agonised France. To the good 
people of Vaucouleurs who pitied her 
lot, she answered, “‘ It is for this that I was 
born.” 


The first vision came in the summer-time 
at mid-day. The sky was cloudless, and the 
sun poured down upon the widespread fields. 
Joan was praying in the garden which stretched 
from her father’s house down to the church. 
She heard a voice which said to her, “ Joan, 
daughter of God, be good and wise. Frequent 


32 


THE FIRST VISION 


the Church.1 Put your confidence in the 
Lord.” She was terrified, but raising her eyes 
she saw in a dazzling light an angelic figure 
full of strength and sweetness surrounded by 
other radiant forms. 

On another day the Archangel, $. Michael, 
and the Saints who accompanied him spoke of 
the state of the country and revealed to her 
her mission. 

‘€ It is necessary that you go to the help of 
the Dauphin, so that through you he may 
recover his Kingdom.” 

Joan, taken aback, excused herself. 

‘ ['am only a poor girl and I know neither 
how to write nor how to fight.” 

‘ Daughter of God, go. I will be your help,” 
the voice replied to her. 

Little by little her interviews with the 
spirits became more frequent. They were 
never of long duration. Counsels from on high 
are always brief, to the point, and luminous. 
That is clearly shown by her replies to those 
who questioned her at Rouen: “ What 


1 At this epoch the Catholic religion was the most wide- 
spread religious form, and almost the only one which could 
unite souls to God. That is why the spirit who called 
himself S. Michael conformed with the views of that 
particular time, in order the better to attain his end. 

Autuor’s Note. 


33 


THE INFANCY OF JOAN OF ARC 


doctrine did S. Michael teach you?” they 
asked her. 

‘“* He always said, ‘ Be a good child, and God 
will help you. ” 

This is both simple and sublime and sums 
up all the law of life. High spirits do not 
dissipate their energy in long speeches. Even 
to-day those who can communicate with the 
higher realms of the Beyond only receive 
teaching which is condensed and marked with 
high wisdom. Joan added: ‘*S. Michael has 
told me to be good and to frequent the Church.” 

So it is in the case of every soul who aspires 
to good. Rectitude and prayer are the first 
conditions of a true and pure life. 

One day S. Michael said to her, “ Daughter 
of God, you will lead the Dauphin to Reims, 
so that ihe may receive his Consecration.” 

S. Catherine and S. Margaret said to her 
continually, Go! go! we will help you.” 

Thus there was established between Joan 
and her guides close relations. From her 
‘ Brothers of Paradise ”’ she drew the necessary 
courage to carry out her work. She was filled 
with the idea. France awaited her. She 
must go. 


In the early dawn of a winter day Joan rose. 
She had prepared her light baggage—a small 


34 





THE VISION OF JOAN OF ARC 
From the painting by J. E. Lenepveu. 


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THE DEPARTURE 


packet—and her staff. Then she went to kneel 
at the foot of the bed where her father and 
mother were still lying. Weeping silently she 
murmured a farewell. At this sad moment 
_ she may well have recalled the kindness and 
the cares of her mother and the troubles of her 
father, whose brow was already wrinkled with 
age. She may have thought of the gap which 
her departure would cause, and the grief of 
all those whose life and joys and troubles she 
had always shared. But duty called her. She 
must not fail in her task. 

Adieu, poor parents, adieu, you who have 
had so many uneasy thoughts as to the fate 
of your daughter, whom in your dreams you 
have seen in the company of men-at-arms. 

She will not conduct herself as you have 
feared, for she is pure, pure as the spotless lily. 
Her heart only knows one love—that of her 
country. 

“Good-bye, I am going to Vaucouleurs,”’ 
she said as she passed before the cottage of 
the labourer, Gerard, whose family was related 
to her own. 

“Good-bye, Mengette,” said she to her 
companion. 

‘ Good-bye, you, too, with whom up to now 
I have lived so happily.” 

‘There was only one friend whom she avoided 


D 35 


THE INFANCY OF JOAN OF ARC 


at this moment of farewell, that was her dear 
Hauviette. Leaving her would have been too 
trying. Joan, no doubt, already felt herself 
somewhat shaken, and she had need of all her 
courage. 

She left for Beurey, where one of her uncles 
lived, intending to go thence to Vaucouleurs, 
and so on to the Court. At seventeen years of 
age one pictures her travelling alone under the 
vast vault of Heaven, along a road sown with 
dangers. And Domremy never saw her more. 


36 


CHAPTER IV 
VAUCOULEURS 


From that day onwards difficulty after diffi- 
culty had to be surmounted, and these diffi- 
culties were the more cruel, because they were 
raised by those from whom she might well 
have expected sympathy, affection and help. 
One may apply to her the words, ‘‘ She has 
come among her own, and her own knew her 
Hot”? 

Joan was faced with painful alternatives 
from the beginning to the end of her mission. 
At the outset she, who was so submissive to 
the authority of her parents and so attached 
to her duty, was compelled, in spite of the love 
which she bore her father and her mother, to 
disregard their orders, and secretly to fly from 
the house in which she had been born. 

Her father had had in a dream the revelation 
of her plans. One night he dreamed that his 
daughter was quitting her country and her 
family, and riding off with men-at-arms.1 
He was much troubled over this and spoke 


1 This veridical dream seems to show that Joan’s psychic 
power was to some extent hereditary.—Transtator’s Note. 


37 


VAUCOULEURS 


to his sons about it, ordering them, rather than 
allow such a thing, to drown their sister in the 
Meuse. ‘If you won’t do it,” he added, “I 
will ! ? 

Joan had to dissimulate, being resolved that 
she would obey God rather than man. 

At Rouen her judges put painful and search- 
ing questions to her over this. 

‘ Do you think it was right,” they asked her, 
‘to leave your father and your mother with- 
out a word of farewell ? ” | 

‘ [ have obeyed my father and my mother 
in everything else. Since I left them I have 
had letters written to them and they have 
pardoned me.” 

In this she showed her deference and her 
submission to those who brought her up. None 
the less, the judges insisted : 

‘When you left your father and your 
mother, did you not feel that you were com- 
mitting a sin?” 

Joan laid her whole thoughts bare in this 
beautiful reply : 

‘ Since God commanded it, I had to do it. 
If I had had a hundred fathers and a hundred 
mothers, and if I had been the daughter of 
the King, I should, none the less, have left 
them.” 

She was accompanied by one of her uncles, 

38 


ROBERT DE BAUDRICOURT 


Durand Lexart, whom she had picked up in 
passing through Beurey. He was the only 
member of her family who knew of her inten- 
tions, and the only one who had encouraged her 
in her plans. She then presented herself to 
Robert de Baudricourt, who held Vaucouleurs 
for the Dauphin. Her first reception was 
brutal. Joan was not discouraged. She had 
been warned of it by her Voices. Her reso- 
lution was adamant. Nothing could turn 
her from her object. She stated it in the 
strongest terms to the good people of 
Vaucouleurs. 

‘ Before mid-Lent I must be with the King, 
even though I wear my legs down to the 
knees in getting there.” 

And little by little the rude soldier was led 
by her insistence to pay more attention to that 
which she proposed. 

Like all those who approached her, Robert de 
Baudricourt felt the power of this young girl. 
After having had her exorcised by Jean Tournier, 
Curé of Vaucouleurs, and being convinced that 
there was no evil in her, he dared no longer 
deny her mission, or throw obstacles in her 
way, but gave her a horse and an escort. 

The knight, Jean de Metz, carried away by 
the ardour of Joan, had already promised to 
take her to the King. 


39 


VAUCOULEURS 


‘“ When shall I do it?” he asked her. 

She replied eagerly, ‘“ Better to-day 
than to-morrow, better to-morrow than 
later.” 

She left at last, and the final order of the 
Captain of Vaucouleurs was, ‘‘Go, and we 
will see what comes of it,” a half-hearted and 
discouraging farewell. 

What did it matter to Joan? It was not the 
voices of the earth that she hearkened to, it 
was to those from on high, the voices which 
strengthened and sustained her. 

In her soul, strength and confidence in- 
creased amid the uncertainties and perils 
which each day brought. Often she repeated 
the proverb of her country: ‘ Aid yourself 
and God will aid you.” 

Her future was threatening. Everywhere 
around her there was cause for alarm, but 
within was the Divine driving force. 

Surely here is an example which she has 
given to all the pilgrims of life. The road of 
mankind is lined with the ambushes of Fate. 
Everywhere are traps and pitfalls. To help 
us in our difficulties God has implanted in us 
latent energies which we can use by drawing 
to us these mysterious powers, these helpers 
from on high who increase a hundredfold our 
personal strength and assure us of success in 


40 


THE VOICES 


the struggle. ‘ Aïd yourself and God will 
aid you.” 

She started, accompanied only by a few brave 
men, She journeyed day and night. She had 
to pass a hundred and fifty leagues through 
hostile provinces to reach Chinon, where the 
Dauphin Charles was in residence, he whom 
they named in contempt, “‘ King of Bourges,” 
since he only reigned now over a little slip 
of his own Kingdom. Charles, forever trying 
to forget his evil fortune by devoting himself 
to pleasure, was surrounded by courtiers who 
betrayed him and treated in secret with the 
enemy. 

She had to pass the country of Burgundy, 
the ally of England, and to make her way in 
rainy weather by secret paths across the fords 
of flooded rivers, lying at night on the cold 
and wet earth. Joan never hesitated. Her 
Voices said to her continually, “‘ Go, Daughter 
of God, go. We will come to your aid.” 

And she went. She went in spite of 
obstacles, in spite of dangers. She was flying 
to the help of her prince, who was himself 
without either hope or courage. 

But what a marvellous situation! Here is a 
child coming to draw France out of the abyss. 
What does she bring with her for the task? 
Is it military aid? Is it an army ? No, nothing 

41 


VAUCOULEURS 


of the sort! What she brings is simply faith 
in herself, faith in the future of France, that 
faith which exalts the soul and which can move 
mountains. What did Joan herself say to all 
those who met her on her journey? “ I come 
from the King of Heaven and I will bring you 
the help of Heaven.” 


42 


CHAPTER V 
CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


Most authors think that Joan entered Touraine 
at Amboise, following the Roman road which 
skirts the left bank of the Loire. In that case 
she would have come from Gien to Blois, 
passing through Sologne. Leaving Amboise 
she would have passed the Cher at St. Martin 
le Beau, and then would have halted at St. 
Catherine de Fierbois, where there was a 
sanctuary consecrated to one of her Saints, 
According to an old tradition, Charles Martel, 
having conquered the Saracens, and extermin- 
ated them in the wild woods in the midst of 
which this Chapel was built (Ferus Boscus 
Fierbois), left his sword in the oratory. Rebuilt 
in 1375, it was frequented by knights and 
men-at-arms who, in the hope of getting 
cured from their wounds, would vow to 
make a pilgrimage and to leave their swords 


_ there. 


On the road an ambush had been laid by a 
band of ruffians, who had probably been 
directed by the treacherous La Trémoille, and 
were charged to carry off Joan. But at the 


43 


CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


sight of her these bandits seem to have stood 
helpless before her and to have let her pass. 

According to the evidence of Poulengy and 
of Novelonpont, each corroborating the other, 
the journey from Vaucouleurs to Chinon was 
performed in eleven days. 

‘It follows,” says the Abbé Bossebceuf, 
‘that she arrived on Wednesday, the 23rd 
February.” Wallon, Quicherat, and others put 
it as the 6th of March. 

At last she sighted the town with its three 
castles, all grouped together in one long grey 
mass of crenellated walls, towers and castle 
keeps. 

At her entry into Chinon the little caravan 
passed through the narrow streets between 
Gothic houses, their fronts faced with slates 
and decorated at each corner with wooden 
statues. One can imagine how marvellous 
stories at once began to circulate from mouth 
to mouth among the folk who gathered in the 
evenings, in the circle of light thrown by the 
torches above the doors, about this young girl 
who had come from the frontiers of Lorraine 
in order to carry out the prophecies and to 
put an end to the insolent victories of the 
English. 

Joan and her escort took up their SRE at 
the house ‘‘ of a good woman near the castle.” 


44 


“ DAUGHTER OF GOD ” 


No doubt this was the house of Signor Reignier 
dela Barre, whose widow and daughter received 
the Maid with joy. There she remained for 
two days without obtaining audience of the 
Prince. Later she lodged in the castle itself, 
in the tower of Coudray. 

This audience which she had so longed for 
was at last granted to her. It was evening. 
The glare of the torches, the sound of the 
trumpets, and all the pomp of the reception 
could not dazzle or intimidate her. She had 
come from a world more dazzling than ours. 
She had known of glories to which all that we 
could show her are pale indeed—farther away 
than Domremy, farther away than the earth. 
In ages which preceded her birth, she had 
been familiar with assemblies more glorious 
than the Court of France, and she had pre- 
served within her the intuition. 

Louder than the clash of arms and the 
blare of trumpets, she heard a voice which 
spoke within her, and which repeated, “‘ Go, 
Daughter of God, I am with you.” 

Among my readers some may find that what 
I say seems strange. Let me remind them 
that spirit existed before the body, that it has 
experienced before its last terrestrial birth vast 
periods of time during which it has filled many 
parts, and that it re-descends into this world 


45 


CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


at each new incarnation with the whole accu- 
mulation of qualities, of faculties and of apti- 
tudes which were formed in that dim past 
which it has experienced, 

There is in each of us, deep down in the 
depths of our conscience, an accumulation of 
impressions and of memories springing from 
our former lives, whether led upon earth or 
in the Beyond. These remembrances slumber 
within us. The heavy mantle of flesh stifles 
them, and holds them down, but sometimes 
under the impulse of some external pressure, 
they suddenly awake and intuitions come to 
the surface. Faculties which we have ignored 
reappear, and for an instant we become a very 
different being from that which others have 
up to that moment known. 

You have seen, no doubt, those plants which 
float on the surface of the stagnant water of 
ponds. They form an image of the human 
soul. It floats over the dark depths of its own 
past. Its roots go back to unknown and 
distant attachments, whence it draws the vital 
sap and produces an ephemeral flower which 
can open, spread itself out and bloom for a 
time in the fields of our terrestrial life. 

In the immense hall of the castle to which 
Joan was led, there were assembled three 


46 


CHARLES VII 


hundred lords, knights and noble ladies in 
brilliant costumes. 

What an impression such an experience 

might be expected to produce on a humble 
_ shepherdess! What courage was needed to 
face all these licentious or critical eyes, and this 
crowd of courtiers whom she felt to be hostile 
to herself! 

There was present Regnault de Chartres, 
Chancellor of France and Archbishop of 
Reims, a prelate with a hard, perfidious and 
envious nature; there was La Trémoille, 
Court Chancellor, a dark, jealous man who 
dominated the King and plotted in secret with 
the English. There was the hard and arrogant 
Raoul de Gaucourt, Grand Master of the 
King’s household. ‘There was Marshal Gilles 
de Retz, the wicked magician, better known 
under the nickname of ‘* Bluebeard.” 

Then there were titled harlots and cunning, 
avaricious priests. Joan felt all around her 
an atmosphere of incredulity and hostility. 
Such was the Court in which Charles VII 
lived, weakened by his abuse of pleasure, far 
from the seat of war, and surrounded by his 
favourites and his mistresses. 

Suspicious and critical, the King, in order 
to test Joan, caused his throne to be occupied 
by one of his courtiers and concealed himself 


47 


CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


in the crowd. But she went straight to him, 
knelt down before him and spoke to him for a 
long time in a low voice. She revealed to 
him his secret thoughts, his doubts as to his 
own birth, ‘ and the face of this sad monarch 
lit up with a ray of confidence and of 
faith,”’ 

This aroused interest and amazement, for all 
felt that an extraordinary phenomenon had 
been produced. But still there was no one 
there who could believe that the fate of the 
proudest kingdom of Christianity could lie in 
such hands as these, or that the feeble arm of a 
poor village girl could be ordained to carry out 
a task which had been unsuccessfully attempted 
by the counsels of the most wise and by the 
courage of the most brave. 


Sent on to Poitiers, Joan appeared there 
before a Commission of Enquiry composed of 
twenty theologians, including two bishops, 
those of Poitiers and of Maguelonne. 

‘It was a wonderful sight,’ said Alain 
Chartier, writing under the immediate im- 
pression of the scene, “to see this woman 
disputing with so many men, ignorant 
among the learned and alone among her 
enemies.” 


48 


THE COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY 


All her answers showed great vivacity and 
extraordinary tact. She broke out continually 
into unforeseen and original remarks which 
made the pitiable objections of her examiners 
seem ridiculous. The actual record of the 
Interrogatory of Poitiers has been destroyed. 
Some historians lay the responsibility of this 
upon the agents of the Crown of France, who 
showed so much ingratitude and so much 
wicked indifference towards the Maid during 
her long captivity. There only remains to 
us a résumé of the conclusions at which these 
doctors arrived who were summoned to give 
their opinion of Joan. 

‘ In her,” they said, ‘‘ we find no evil, but 
much good, humility, purity, devotion, honesty 
and simplicity.” 

We have also the witnesses who gave evidence 
in the Process of Rehabilitation. Brother 
Séquin of the Order of Preaching Friars 
expressed himself thus, with simplicity and 
good humour : 

‘€ | asked Joan what dialect her voices spoke. 

‘“< A better one than yours,’ she answered 
me. 

MAnd as a matter of fact, L speak a 
Limousin dialect. 

‘ Going on with my questions, I said to 
her, ‘ Do you believe in God ? ? 

| 42 


CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


‘€ A good deal more than you do,’ she 
answered.” 

Another of these Poitiers judges, William 
Amery, said to her, “‘ You say that God 
promised you victory and yet you are asking 
for soldiers. What is the good of soldiers if 
victory is already promised ? ” 

‘<The soldiers,’ said Joan, ‘ will fight in 
the name of God and then God will give 
victory.” 

When they asked her for signs, that is to 
say, for miracles : 

‘ T have not come to Poitiers to give signs, 
but take me to Orleans, and that will show you 
what I am sent for.” 

She had after this to undergo an examina- 
tion of matrons presided over by the Queen of 
Sicily. 

Emerging triumphantly from all these tests 
she still had to wait more than a month before 
she could march against the English, for it was 
only at the critical moment, when the situation 
of Orleans had become truly desperate, that 
Dunois obtained permission to take her as a 
last resource at the head of a convoy of supplies. 


Joan went on to Tours to get her armour 
and her Standard. The town was greatly 
excited at the moment. The citizens were 


50 


THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS 


working hard at the fortifications. On 
October 14th, 1428, Marshal Gaucourt, Baillie 
of Orleans, and Grand Master of the King’s 
Household, told them that the English had 
laid siege to Orleans, and that they would 
next march upon Tours. The City was putting 
itself into a state of defence. ‘‘In every 
part,” says the Chronicle, ‘ masons and artisans 
were hard at work.” They laboured hard to 
deepen and enlarge the moats and to prepare 
the defences of the bridges. On the towers 
and along the ramparts they threw up wooden 
shelters for the watchers. ‘They practised 
their artillery and gathered into the town 
bombards and culverins, with gunpowder, balls 
of stone, and everything else which pertained 
to gunnery at that period. Let the enemy 
come! ‘They would know how to receive him. 

The ancient city of Tours was at that time 
a most important place. They called it ‘ the 
Second Rome” on account of its numerous 
churches, its monasteries, and above all its 
Shrine of St. Martin, to which folk came from 
every part of Christendom. 

In order to understand the surroundings 
at the time of Joan of Arc let us climb in 
imagination to the summit of one of the towers 
of the sanctuary of St. Martin, the tower 
of Charlemagne, for example, which remains 

E SI 


CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


up to our own time, and which encloses the 
tomb of Luitgarde, wife of Charlemagne, 
whence it takes its name. 

The aspect of the town, from a bird’s-eye 
point of view, would resemble very much that 
of the other great French cities of the Middle 
Ages, and so it might be well to pause here 
for a few moments and describe it. 

The fortifications formed four unbroken 
lines of walls and towers. Inside the walls 
was a labyrinth of narrow streets and cramped 
squares lined by long rows of houses with high 
gables and irregular roofs, each story pro- 
jecting above the other. ‘There were statues on 
either side of the doors upon sculptured sup- 
ports, and high dormer windows of stained glass. 
To complete the picturesque effect one has to 
imagine grotesque iron signs taking the place 
of the numbers of the houses and swinging in 
the wind. Some of them would have an 
historical or heraldic meaning, others would 
be emblematic, commemorative or religious. 
Here, for example, in the Grande Rue were 
the signs of the Unicorn, of the Magpie, and 
of the Golden Paternoster. In the Place St. 
Martin there were the signs of the Preaching 
Ape and the Yowling Cat. In the Rue de 
la Rôtisserie there was the sign of the Three 
Tortoises, and so on. 


52 


TOURS 


From the high point on which we stand we 
would look down upon a forest of sharp pin- 
nacles, belfries and walls, from which emerge 
the three masses of the Cathedral, the central 
portion only in course of building, so that the 
towers are not as yet more than from thirty 
to sixty feet above the ground. There, too, 
is the Abbey of St. Julien, and the far more 
imposing mass of the Shrine of St. Martin, 
only two towers of which remain to-day. 

At our feet lies the city with its fifty churches 
and chapels, its eight great walled cloisters, its 
numerous inns and dwellings of the nobles. 
There is a whole forest of spires, pinnacles, 
belfries, clustered towers and high Gothic 
chimneys. Then you see a maze of streets 
which cross and re-cross, and narrow squares 
crowded with people and horses. Listen to 
the murmur, to the low roar of the city which 
mounts to your ears! Hark to the tolling of 
the hours which sounds from all the bells! 

Now imagine one clear ray of sunshine falling 
upon this scene. See the river with all its 
changing tints! Further off is the countryside 
covered with vines and great forests which 
flourish upon the two plateaus, especially the 
one to the south, and form a verdant frame 
around the city gleaming at the bottom of 
the valley. Realise all that, and you will have 


53 


CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


some idea of the appearance of Tours on the 
day when Joan of Arc, followed by her military 
escort, made her entrance. 

According to the deposition at the trial 
of her page, Louis de Contes, she lodged with 
a lady named Lapau. From the evidence of 
her almoner, Jean Pasquerel, it was with a 
citizen, Jean Dupuy, that she stayed. These 
contradictions are only apparent. As a matter 
of fact, the Tourainian noble, Jehan du Puy, 
had for wife Eleanor de Paul, but after the 
fashion in those days the name was contracted. 
When requested by Queen Yolande to give 
hospitality to a strange guest, whom she had 
taken under her protection, Jean du Puy, 
Counsellor to the King, with his wife received 
her into their house situated near the Church 
of St. Pierre. Many archeologists believe it 
to have been the house which we now call 
Tristan. 

It was at Tours that Brother Pasquerel, 
reader at the Augustinian Convent in the 
town, was attached to the service of Joan as 
almoner. He followed her faithfully up to the 
time of her capture at Compiégne one year 
later. 

It was at Tours also that the brave child 
received her military outfit, her sword and 
her banner. Following her instructions an 


54 


THE SWORD OF CHARLES MARTEL 


armourer of the town went to look for the 
sword deposited by Charles Martel at St. 
Catherine de Fierbois. It was disinterred 
from behind the altar, and no one else in 
the world had known that it was there. 
For our heroine, therefore, this sword sprang 
forth from the dust of the centuries in order 
once again to chase the invader from France. 
Another armourer of Tours built a brilliant 
suit of steel armour for Joan. 

Following the instructions of her Voices, 
Joan had a white banner made by an artist 
of Touraine to serve as a Standard and as a 
rallying point. It was embroidered with a 
silk fringe and bore on it an image of God 
blessing the Lilies of France, with the motto, 
‘ Jesus Maria.” ‘The heroine never separated 
the cause of France from that higher One, 
the Divine Inspiration, whence her mission 
came. 

Joan left Tours about the 25th April, 1429, 
for Blois, where the war chiefs and the main 
body of the army were awaiting her. ‘Twelve 
days later, a date of imperishable memory, 
she gained the battle of Tourelle and raised 
the siege of Orleans. 

When she quitted Tours all the population 
gathered in the streets and open spaces to see 
and to hail her. 


55 


CHINON, POITIERS AND TOURS 


She caracoled lightly on her beautiful war- 
horse in her white armour, which shone in the 
morning sun. With her banner in her hand 
and the sword of Fierbois at her side, she was 
all radiant with hope and faith. She seemed 
the very Angel of War come down as a mes- 
senger from on high. 


56 


CHAPTER VI 
ORLEANS 


Tue journey from Tours to Orleans was one 
long ovation. Everywhere Joan raised hope 
and confidence as she passed. If the courtiers 
suspected and despised her, the people at least 
believed in her and her mission of liberation. 
The English were struck into stupor. They 
remained motionless in their entrenchments 
whilst the Maid passed at the head of the 
relieving army. The inhabitants of Orleans, 
drunk with enthusiasm, and forgetting all their 
perils, rushed out from the walls and ran in 
crowds to meet her. According to an eye- 
witness: ‘‘ They felt themselves to be com- 
forted, and relieved by the Divine virtue 
which they had been told resided in this simple 
girl whom they all, men, women, and children, 
looked upon with devout love.” 

The campaign of Joan on the Loire offers a 
spectacle which is unique in history. The 
Generals of Charles VII, Dunois, La Hire, 
Gaucourt, and Xaintrailles marched against 
the enemy under the orders of a young girl 
of eighteen. 


57 


ORLEANS 


Difficulties without number arose in their 
path. A circle of formidable forts had been 
built by the English around Orleans. Even 
a short delay would cause the surrender through 
famine of one of the greatest and strongest 
towns in the Kingdom. Before them were 
the best soldiers of England, commanded by 
their most famous generals, the very men who 
had beaten the French in a long series of 
victories. 

Think, then, of the immense obstacles 
against which this young girl had to struggle. 
She had, it is true, brave men at her side, but 
they were demoralised by many defeats and 
were too badly organised to avoid new disasters. 

The first attack, which was attempted in the 
absence of Joan, on the Fort of St. Loup was 
repulsed. Warned of impending defeat, the 
heroine sprang upon her horse, threw out her 
banner, reanimated the soldiers, and led them 
once more with reckless ardour to the attack. 

‘ It was the first time,” says Anatole France, 
in one of those rare passages in his book in 
which he does the Maid justice, ‘ that Joan 
had seen a battle, and yet no sooner had she 
thrown herself into it, than she became the 
leader, because she was so by nature. She 
commanded better than the others, not because 
she knew more—as a fact, she knew less—but 


58 


RAPID SUCCESSES 


because she had the greater heart. When 
each thought of himself she alone thought of 
all. When each guarded himself she took no 
precaution whatever, having in advance given 
herself entirely to the cause. And yet this 
child who, like every other human being, 
feared suffering and death, and to whom her 
prophetic Voices had announced that she would 
be wounded, went straight forward and stood 
exposed on the edge of the moat, under the 
shower of crossbow-bolts and of bullets from 
the culverins, her Standard in her hand, rally- 
ing the combatants.” 

By this vigorous attack she broke the English 
line. One by one the forts were carried. In 
three days Orleans was delivered. Then fight 
followed fight like a series of lightning flashes 
in a thunderstorm. Every attack was a victory. 
First it was Jargeau, then Meung, then Beau- 
gency. Finally, at Patay, the English were 
beaten in a pitched battle, and Talbot, their 
general, was made prisoner. Then came the 
march upon Reims, and Charles VII was 
consecrated King of France. 

In two months Joan had repaired all recent 
disasters, had reconstituted, disciplined, and 
transformed the army, and had raised the 
courage of all. 

‘ Before she came,” said Dunois, ‘‘ two 


59 


ORLEANS 


hundred English could put to flight a thousand 
French, but with her to lead them a few 
hundred French could drive back an entire 
army.” 

In the ‘ Mystère du Siége,”’ a popular drama 
given for the first time in 1456 at Orleans, one 
of the actors declaims, ‘ One of us is worth a 
hundred when we are under the banner of 
the Maid.” 

Certain authors, such as Thalamas, have 
tried to show that the situation at Orleans in 
1429 was not really as serious as one generally 
supposes. ‘The English were not numerous. 
The Burgundians had retired. The town was 
well provisioned, and could have resisted a 
long time. The people of Orleans were capable 
of delivering themselves by their own efforts. 

Not only are all the historians, Michelet, 
Henri Martin, Wallon, Lavisse, etc., unanimous 
in stating that the situation was most dangerous 
for the besieged, but we may quote the opinion 
of another writer who cannot be suspected 
of partiality towards Joan. Anatole France 
writes : 

‘ Tormented with doubts and fears, full 
of anxiety, without sleep, without rest, and 
with everything against them, the people 
of Orleans had begun to despair.”” On the 
other hand, the English were expecting re- 

60 


DESPAIR OF THE BESIEGED 


inforcements promised by the Regent. Five 
thousand fighting men had assembled at Paris 
under the orders of Sir John Fastolf to march 
to the help of the besiegers. 

Finally, let us recall the evidence of the 
Duc d’Alençon during the Process of Re- 
habilitation. He spoke of the formidable 
forts which had been raised by the English. 

lf islad* beens’, said. he, “in any. one of 
them with a small garrison of men-at-arms I 
would have ventured to defy the power of a 
whole army, and I do not see how the attackers 
could have mastered my defence. I may add,” 
said he, “that the captains who took part in 
these operations have declared to me that what 
occurred at Orleans was a miracle.” 

To these witnesses one may add the testi- 
mony of one of the besieged, Jean Luillier, a 
notable merchant of the city. He expressed 
himself thus: ‘ [ believe that if the Maid had 
not come to our aid we should very soon have 
been in the power of the besiegers. It was 
impossible that the people of Orleans could 
hold out longer against the power of adver- 
saries who had so great a superiority.” 

Not less remarkable is the evidence which is 
written on a page of the register by a modest 
notary of the town, William Girault, and repre- 
sents the feeling of all France of that day, 

61 


ORLEANS 


‘ that this deliverance was the most obvious 
miracle which had ever been seen since the 
Passion of Christ.” 

The enthusiasm of the inhabitants was in 
proportion to the dangers which they had run. 
After the deliverance of their town the people 
of Orleans ‘ offered to Joan, in return for what 
she had done, everything which they possessed 
in the world.” So we are told in the Fournal 
du Stége. 

This part of the life of Joan is rich in pro- 
phecies which we may add to those which have 
already been indicated. Her Voices had told 
her that at her entrance into Orleans the 
English would not move. ‘The facts confirmed 
this. 

The barges which had to cross the river to 
embark the provisions could not do so, because 
the wind was unfavourable. Joan said, ‘* Wait 
a little, and all will come into the town.” 

So it fell out, for the wind veered round and 
filled the sails. 

She showed no anxiety on the subject of 
Marshal du Boussac, who had gone forward 
with a second convoy of provisions. She said, 
‘ [ know well that no harm will befall him.” 
The outcome exactly followed her prophecy. 

Little by little, the increased confidence 
gained at Orleans spread over the whole of 


62 


NEW HOPE FOR FRANCE 


France. As the victories of Joan followed one 
another, the King announced them to all his 
loyal towns, inviting the population to praise 
God and to honour the Maid who “ had always 
been present in person at the doings of France.” 

Everywhere the news was received and passed 
on with a delirious joy, while the people turned 
to the heroine with an ever-increasing devotion. 


63 


CHAPTER VII 
REIMS 


THE prophecy of Joan concerning Orleans had 
been accomplished. There remained the 
march upon Reims and the consecration of 
Charles VII. Without losing an instant the 
Maid set to work to realise them. She quitted 
Orleans and went forth to find the Dauphin 
in the depths of Touraine. She finally re- 
joined him at Tours, and then followed him to 
Loches, pressing him continually to push on 
at once to bring this gallant enterprise to 
success. But this indolent, feeble prince hesi- 
tated between the ardour of the heroine and 
the misgivings of his counsellors, who considered 
it to be rash to risk a journey of sixty leagues 
across a country which bristled with fortresses 
and towns occupied by the enemy. To 
all their objections Joan made the same 
answer : 

‘ [ know it well, and I have considered all 
that. We shall succeed.’’ 

The enthusiasm of the people and of the 
Army was ever increasing. They clamoured 
to follow up the retreat of the English, who had 


64 


THE FUTILE KING 


evacuated the Loire and had fallen back upon 
Paris, abandoning their baggage and their 
artillery. Never had they received so rude a 
blow. Struck with terror they imagined that 
they saw in the air armies of phantoms advanc- 
ing against them. 

The rumour of these events re-echoed 
throughout France. Hope and energy began 
to re-awake. ‘The general enthusiasm was such 
that Charles VII could no longer persist in 
his indifference. He piled honours upon the 
victorious Maid and her family, but he himself 
remained without enterprise and without 
courage. He did not even go to visit the 
people of Orleans. His principal counsellors, 
La Trémoille and Regnault de Chartres, were 
uneasy and secretly annoyed at the successes 
of Joan, which threw them into the shadow 
and made them jealous of the prestige which 
turned the thoughts and the hopes of all 
towards her. They asked themselves if their 
credit and their fortune were not about to be 
eclipsed in this great, irresistible, popular 
movement which had driven back the English 
invasion. 

Finally, the public cry took a threatening 
tone, and it had to be obeyed. An army of 
12,000 fighting men was gathered at Gien. 
Men of the nobler families mustered there 

65 


REIMS 


from every part of France, and those who 
were too poor to equip themselves as knights 
begged to be allowed to serve as footmen. 
They set forth on the 29th June with little 
money, few provisions and an insufficient 
artillery. 

On the 5th July they came before Troyes. 
The town, which was strongly fortified, well 
found in all things, and defended by an Anglo- 
Burgundian garrison, refused to open its gates. 
The French Army, with its meagre resources, 
could not undertake a long siege. At the end 
of a few days the soldiers were reduced to 
gathering the herbs and the ripening crops 
which they found in the fields. 

The King assembled his council to deliberate 
what course to follow. The Maid was not 
even called to it. The Chancellor laid before 
them the dangerous situation in which they 
found themselves and debated whether the 
Army should fall back, or continue its march 
on Reims. Each of the generals was asked to 
reply in turn. 

Robert le Masson, Lord of Trèves-sur- 
Loire, remarked that the King having under- 
taken this expedition, not because it seemed 
easy, nor because he had a powerful army, nor 
the money needed for paying it, but entirely 
because Joan had said that it was the will of 

66 





Braun photo, 


THE CATHEDRAL AT REIMS. 





BEFORE TROYES 


God and that they would meet with no resist- 
ance, they should, before going further, con- 
sult the Maid. This proposal was accepted. 
At that very moment, she, warned as to what 
_ was going on by her Voices, struck loudly on 
the door. 

She entered and, addressing the King, she 
said : 

“Gentle King of France, if you will deign 
to remain only two days in front of your town 
of Troyes, it will pay homage to you, either 
through fear or through love. Have no doubt 
about that.” 

The Chancellor replied: ‘ If one were only 
sure of that, one might well wait six days 
for it.” 

‘* Have no doubt about it,” said Joan once 
more. 

She hurried through the camp to organise 
an instant attack, communicating to all the 
ardour with which she herself was burning. 
The night was spent in preparation. From 
the height of the walls and towers the besieged 
saw the French camp full of feverish activity. 
By the light of torches, knights, squires and 
soldiers were working hard to prepare the 
means for filling up the ditches, making 
fascines and ladders and building up screens 
for the artillery. 

F 67 


REIMS 


The spectacle was fantastic and impressive. 

When the dawn whitened the horizon, the 
inhabitants of Troyes saw with terror that 
everything was ready for a furious assault. 
Columns of attack were drawn up at the most 
favourable points with their reserves behind 
them. The guns, well sheltered, were ready to 
open fire. The archers and the cross-bow men 
were ready in their places. The whole army, 
in silent ranks, awaited the signal. In front of 
them on the edge of the moat, her Standard 
in her hand, stood the Maid, surrounded 
by the trumpeters who should sound the 
assault. 

The besieged, seized with panic, asked for 
terms. These were easily arranged. It was 
the obvious interest of the King to show mercy 
to those towns which were ready to surrender. 
The next day, roth July, the English garrison 
marched out of the city, taking with them some 
French prisoners of war, whose freedom the 
King had forgotten to demand. ‘These poor 
wretches, seeing Joan, threw themselves at her 
feet, imploring her help. She offered strong 
Opposition to their departure, and the King 
was forced to pay their ransom. 

Following the example of Troyes, Chalons 
and Reims opened their gates to Charles VII. 

At Chalons, Joan had the joy of meeting 

68 


HOME THOUGHTS 


several inhabitants of Domremy who had 
come to see her again, and among them, 
Gerardin, a labourer, whose son, Nicholas, 
was her godson. She confided to them her 
thoughts and feelings, told them her hopes 
and fears, and recounted her battles and 
victories, the splendour of the coming con- 
secration and the salvation of France, so lately 
sunk in despair. 

Among these homely but honest folk, who 
brought back the atmosphere of her childhood, 
she felt at her ease. She told them that all 
these glories had left no mark at all upon her, 
and what a joy it would be to return to the 
village to renew her peaceable life in the midst 
of her family. But her mission held her near 
the King, and she had to submit to the will of 
those above her. 

The struggle against the English gave her 
less trouble than the intrigues of the Court 
and the perfidy of the nobles. 

‘ All I fear is treason,” she said. 

And as a fact it was by treason that she was 
destined to perish. In the case of every great 
missioner there is always some traitor hidden 
in the shadow who schemes his ruin. 


Against the deep blue of the sky there stood 
out the high towers of the Cathedral of Reims, 
69 


REIMS 


already many centuries old at the time of Joan 
of Arc. Through the three open portals one 
could catch a glimpse of the vast aisles shining 
in the light of thousands of candles where was 
gathered a strange mixed crowd of priests, 
lords, fighting men and citizens in holiday 
attire. The notes of the holy chants echoed 
amid the vaulted roofs, and from time to time 
warlike bugles broke in with their brazen cry. 

The Guilds and the Corporations with their 
various ensigns displayed above them and all 
who could not find room in the Cathedral were 
assembled in the square outside. An immense 
mob of townspeople and villagers from the 
country around thronged round the edges of 
the great building, and could hardly be kept 
from breaking in by the steel-clad knights who 
were on guard, and by the archers who bore 
upon their jupons the Arms of France. Pages 
and squires held by the bridle the magnificent 
chargers of the King, the peers and the leaders 
of the Army. The people pointed out the 
black charger of the Maid which was held by 
one of her retainers. 

Let us make our way under the high Gothic 
hall, and advance as far as the choir. The King, 
surrounded by twelve peers of the realm, lay 
and ecclesiastic, and by the Constable, Charles 
d’Albret, holding the State sword of France, 


70 


THE CROWNING 


was about to be made a knight. Near him, 
lower down, with her back against the right- 
hand pillar at a spot which they still point out, 
stood Joan, armed for war, her white Standard 
in her hand, that Standard which “ after having 
been great in battle should be honoured in 
peace.” 

The King received the Holy Oil from the 
hands of the Archbishop of Reims, Regnault 
de Chartres. The latter took from the altar 
the crown, which was then held by the twelve 
peers, their hands spread out above the head 
of the Monarch. After having laid the crown 
upon him, Charles de Valois girded on the 
royal mantle, blue with scattered golden lilies. 
It was at this moment that the Maid, in a 
burst of emotion, threw herself at his feet, 
embracing his knees, and said to him: 

‘ Gentle sire, thus is accomplished the Will 
of God, Who ordained that I should raise the 
siege of Orleans, and lead you to this city of 
Reims to receive your worthy Consecration, and 
so to prove that you are the true King and the 
heir to the Crown of France.” 

The trumpets broke out anew, the procession 
formed, and when in the opening of the great 
porch the King made his appearance, tre- 
mendous shouts of “ Noel! Noel!” went up 
from the crowd on every side. 


71 


REIMS 


The pealing of the bugles vibrated through 
the high vaults. The chants and joyous cries 
swelled up into the heavens, and to their 
appeal thousands of invisible voices replied.. 

They were there, all the great spirits of 
Gaul, to celebrate the saving of their native 
country. They were there, all those who 
had loved and served to the death the noble 
land of France. ‘They soared above the heads 
of the excited crowd. Here was Vercingetorix, 
followed by the heroes of Gergovie and of 
Alesia. Here were Clovis and his Franks. 
Here, too, Charles Martel and his companions, 
and Charlemagne, the great Emperor with 
the flowing beard. With his sword, called 
‘ Joyeuse,” he saluted Joan and Charles VII. 
Then came Roland and his nobles, and the 
innumerable crowds of knights, priests, monks, 
and soldiers, whose bodies repose under the 
heavy sepulchral stones, or are lost in the dust 
of the centuries. All those who had given 
their lives for France, they, too, were there 
and cried their “ Noels!” to greet the resur- 
rection of their Fatherland, and ate TS 
of Gaul. 

The procession swept along through the 
narrow streets and among the little squares. 
At the side of the King rode Joan, holding 
her banner, then came the Prince, the marshals 


72 





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THE GOLDEN HOUR 


and the captains, all richly clad and mounted 
on magnificent chargers. Pennons, flags and 
banderoles floated in the wind. But amidst 
these gaily-dressed lords, and warriors in their 
shining armour, all eyes were fixed on the 
young girl who had brought them to the city 
of Consecration, even as she predicted in her 
village at a time when she was the simple 
peasant, the little unknown shepherdess. 

The whole town was en féte. People had 
come from afar for the Consecration. Jacques 
d’Arc, the father of Joan, had arrived two days 
before from Domremy, together with Durand 
Lexart. 

They put up at the inn of the Ane Rayé in 
the Rue du Parvis. It was a moving scene 
when the heroine, accompanied by her brother 
Pierre, saw once again her aged father. She 
threw herself on her knees and implored his 
pardon for having left him without his assent, 
adding that it was the will of God. 

At the request of the Maid the King gave 
them audience, and granted to the inhabitants 
of the villages of Greux and Domremy exemp- 
tion from all taxes. The expenses of Jacques 
d’Arc were paid from the public funds, and a 
horse was given him, at the charge of the town, 
to return to his own home. 

Joan showed herself in the streets, receiving 


73 


REIMS 


with modesty and with kindness the humble 
suppliants who came to her. The people 
pressed around her. All wished to touch her 
hands and her ring. ‘There was not one who 
was not convinced that she had been sent by 
God to bring to an end the calamities which 
oppressed the Kingdom. All this happened 
on Sunday, 17th July, 1429, a date which 
marked the culminating point of the career 
of Joan of Arc. 

None the less, Michelet is wrong in saying 
that her mission should have ended at Reims, 
and that she disobeyed the Voices in con- 
tinuing her struggle. 

This assertion is denied by the words of the 
heroine herself in her declarations to the 
examiners of Poitiers and to the judges at 
Reims. Above all, she asserts it in her letter 
sent to the English captains before Orleans 
under the date of the 22nd March. 

“Wherever I find your people in France I 
will drive them out, whether they will or not. 
I have been sent by God to rid France of you 
entirely.” 

There can, then, be no doubt about it. The 
idea that the mission of Joan came to an end 
at Reims was only put forward at the time of 
the Process of Rehabilitation to conceal from 
posterity the disloyalty, or rather one might 


74 


THE SIMPLICITY OF GREATNESS 


say, the crime of Charles VII and his counsellors 
and so to free them from the heavy responsi- 
bility which weighs upon them. 

It is with this object that history has been 
falsified and mutilated by them. The evidence 
of witnesses has been altered, the record of the 
questions asked at Poitiers has been destroyed, 
and thus an odious act—a work of falsehood 
and iniquity—has been accomplished. 

None the less, it was not without apprehen- 
sion and not without regrets that Joan went 
on with her arduous mission. Some days later, 
riding between Dunois and the Chancellor, 
Regnault de Chartres, she said, “‘ How I wish 
that it would please God that I might now 
return, leaving these arms, and that I might 
go to serve my father and mother, and to care 
for the flocks with my sister and brothers, 
who would be right glad to see me once more.” 

These words show that all the glory of her 
triumph and the splendours of the Court had 
never dazzled her. She had come to the 
height of her glory. ‘The adoration of a whole 
people mounted up to her. It is no exaggera- 
tion to say that she was the first in the Kingdom 
and that her prestige eclipsed that of the King. 
Yet she only longed for the peace of the fields 
and the simple pleasures of her home. Neither 
her victories nor the power which she had 


75 


REIMS 


gained had changed her. She remained simple 
and modest in the midst of her greatness. What 
a lesson for those who are unbalanced by the 
least success and turn giddy if any favour of 
fortune comes their way! 


76 


CHAPTER VIII 
COMPIEGNE 


“To Paris!” cried the Maid, the day after 
the Consecration. 

‘To Paris!” cried all the army. 

If they had marched straight on to the 
capital as Joan desired, there was every chance 
that they might have captured it on account 
of the confusion which reigned among the 
English. Charles VII lost precious time, and 
the Duke of Bedford profited by it in order to 
reinforce Paris. He summoned from England 
a fresh army to help him, raised by the Car- 
dinal of Winchester, uncle of King Henry, 
and intended originally to fight against the 
Hussites. 

From this moment the star of Joan began 
to wane. After the triumphs and the dazzling 
victories there came the dark hours, the hours 
of trial working up towards prison and martyr- 
dom. As the fame of the heroine spread, and 
as her glory surpassed all other glories, hatred 
too increased around her, Intrigues broke 
out among these great lords whose plans she 
had thwarted, and whose dark conspiracies 


Fi 


COMPIEGNE 


she had unveiled. All the perfidious courtiers 
whom she had eclipsed, as well as the men of 
the Church with hearts full of guile, who could 
not pardon her for saying that she was sent 
without their authority straight from Heaven, 
and that she preferred the inspiration of her 
Voices to any advice from them, plotted 
against her. Then also there were many 
of the warlike chiefs who had been beaten 
in a hundred fights, and who saw them- 
selves suddenly surpassed in military science 
by a girl from the fields—these men, hurt in 
their pride, had sworn her ruin. ‘They awaited 
the favourable moment, and that moment was 
at hand. 

The English had been prostrated by their 
defeat. Their principal army was destroyed, 
their best captains were dead or prisoners, 
their soldiers deserted out of fear of the Maid. 
They no longer doubted the supernatural 
power of her whom they called “ the Sorceress 
of France.” If Charles VII, immediately 
after his Oath, had hastened to Paris, the great 
town would have given itself up without a 
battle. 

Six weeks were lost in hesitation. Then, 
when at last they arrived before the capital, no 
precaution had been taken. The orders of 
Joan had not been executed. The moats had 


78 


WOUNDED 


not been filled up. The attack was not hard- 
pushed. They had given her as lieutenants 
the two warlike chiefs who were most hostile 
to her, ‘ and the two most ferocious men who 
_ ever lived,”’ said Michelet—Raoul de Gaucourt 
and Marshal de Retz, the odious magician, 
destined later to mount the scaffold for the 
crime of sorcery. The King refused to be 
present. In vain they sent message after 
message to him. He would not come. The 
Duc d’Alencon hurried to find him at 
Senlis. He promised to come, and broke 
his word. 

At the attack of the St. Honoré Gate, Joan, 
as usual, showed herself to be heroic. During 
the whole day she kept her place on the edge 
of the ditch under a reign of missiles, exhorting 
the soldiers as they attacked. At sunset she 
was deeply wounded by a cross-bow arrow in 
the thigh, and lay stretched on the turf. She 
did not cease to urge on the soldiers, crying 
from time to time: ‘“ The King! The King! 
Let the King show himself!” But the King 
did not come. 

Towards eleven o’clock in the evening 
several of the leaders seized her and dragged 
her away against her will. ‘They retreated to 
St. Denis, where the King was taking measures 
to regain the castles of the Loire. Joan could 


79 


COMPIEGNE 


not bring herself to lose sight of the spires of 
Paris. 

‘She was, as it were, chained before the 
great city by some force beyond herself.” 

Next morning she wished to recommence 
the attack. But they could no longer advance. 
By order of the King the bridges had been 
cut and retreat imposed upon them. 

Thus ended one of the great infamies of 
history. The very people to whom God had 
sent a saving Messiah had intrigued against 
her. They had succeeded in ruining the 
mission of Joan of Arc, and according to the 
strong expression of Henri Martin “‘ had made 
the Almighty a Liar.” Their selfishness 
and blindness were such that the action of 
Providence was suspended, because they were 
unworthy of it. 

After the check at Paris Joan endured 
a long period of uncertainty, trouble, and 
internal dissension. For eight months she 
experienced alternately successes and reverses, 
success at St. Pierre Lamontier, reverse at La 
Charité. She felt that fortune had abandoned 
her. At the Moat of Melun her Voices said 
to her: ‘Joan, you will be taken prisoner 
before the Feast of St. John.” 

This change of fortune must be entirely 
attributed to the ill-will of mankind, and 

80 


CHANGE OF FORTUNE 


to the ingratitude of the King and his 
counsellors, which threw a thousand obstacles 
in her way, and caused all her enterprises to 
miscarry. 

Was she weakened thereby? In no wise. 
It is from this moment that she became truly 
great, greater even than her victories had 
made her. Her trials, her captivity and her 
martyrdom, so nobly borne, lift her high above 
the most illustrious conquerors, and make her 
sublime in the eyes of posterity. 

In the depths of her prison, before the 
Tribunal of Rouen, and even on the scaffold 
she appears to us more imposing than in the 
turmoil of battle or in the frenzy of triumph. 
Her bearing, her sufferings, her inspired words, 
her tears and her long-drawn agony form one of 
the purest glories of France, an object of 
admiration for all centuries and of emulation 
for all nations! 

Adversity adorned her with a holy aureole. 
By her heroic acceptance of ill-fortune, by the 
greatness of her soul, in reverses and in the 
face of death, she has become a just cause of 
pride for the women of France and an object 
of veneration for all those in whose hearts 
the feeling of moral beauty and love of 
country vibrates. The glory of arms is fine, 
but it is only genius, sanctity and suffering 

81 


COMPIEGNE 


which have a right to the full apotheosis of 
history. 


The siege of La Charité having failed, Joan 
was recalled to the Court, but soon inaction 
fretted her and once again her ardour reasserted 
itself. She abandoned the King to his pleasure 
and his feasts, and at the head of a devoted troop 
she threw herself into Compiégne, which was 
besieged. It was there that during a sortie 
the Governor of the town, William de Flavy, 
dropped the drawbridge behind her, so that 
she was unable to re-enter the place, and was 
taken prisoner by the Count of Luxembourg, 
who belonged to the party of Burgundy. 

What responsibility shall we ascribe to the 
Lord of Flavy in this incident? Some have 
seen premeditated treason. The Chancellor, 
Regnault de Chartres, had visited Compiégne 
a little time before, and had had interviews with 
the Duke of Burgundy. The greater number 
of historians, however—Martin, Quicherat, 
Wallon and Anatole France, believe in the good 
faith of this captain. 

In spite of their arguments, the part which 
he played has remained somewhat equivocal 
and ill-defined. It is true that the recent 
historian M. Pierre Champion, who has written 
about De Flavy, has not been able to draw 

82 











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TREASON 


any definite conclusion from an examination 
of the documents, and has not discovered any 
actual proof against the man. According 
to the psychic information which I have 
received, there is no reason to believe that there 
was premeditation, but rather that he took 
advantage of a situation which happened to 
offer itself in order to get rid of a person who 
had become a Spo DEE block for certain 
ambitions. 

If there was no premeditated plot against 
Joan, there was, none the less, treason in the 
matter, inasmuch as De Flavy made no attempt 
torescueher. Surrounded by the Burgundians 
in the angle of the causeway between Margny 
and the fortification which defended the head 
of the bridge, only a few yards from the Sally 
Port, she might easily have been rescued. At 
that critical moment, the Captain of Com- 
piègne was close up with several hundred men, 
and saw all that passed. He made no effort 
and abandoned Joan to her destiny. It is 
in this that the treason appears flagrant. 

Joan was first confined in the Castle of 
Beaulieu, some distance from Compiégne, 
and was then transferred to the dungeon of 
Beau Revoir belonging to the Count of Luxem- 
bourg. Taken from one prison to another, 
from Arras to Drugy and thence to Crotoy, 

G 83 


COMPIEGNE 


it was not until 21st November, after a pressing 
summons and threats from the University of 
Paris, that she was sold to the English, her 
bitter enemies, for ten thousand pounds, and 
in addition a donation for the soldier who had 
actually captured her. 

John of Luxembourg was of high degree, 
but of a narrow spirit and of decayed fortunes. 
He had inscribed upon his banner a depressing 
motto: 

‘ One cannot attempt the impossible.” 

How infinitely more vibrant was the cry 
of his contemporary, Jacques Cœur: ‘“ To 
the valiant heart nothing is impossible.” 

Deep in debt and almost ruined, Luxembourg 
could not resign himself to adversity, nor in 
consequence could he refuse the {10,000 which 
the King of England offered. At that price 
he sold Joan and handed her over. £10,000 
in gold! It was an enormous sum for those 
days. The English were at the end of their 
resources, and could no longer pay their own 
officials, For want of money the sittings of 
the Court of Justice were suspended at Paris 
for many weeks. The scrivener who wrote 
the Acts of Parliament had his work inter- 
rupted because he could not buy parchment, 
but when it came to a question of buying Joan, 
the English never hesitated to find this large 


84 


THE PRICE OF BLOOD 


sum. How did they get it ? In a very familiar 
fashion. They laid a heavy tax on the whole 
of Normandy, which brings to light a singular 
fact that it was French money that paid for 
the blood of Joan of Arc. 


In the depths of her prison Joan’s chief 
trouble was not about her own lot, but rather, 
as she sadly expressed it, because ‘I can no 
longer serve the noble country of France.” 
On hearing the news that the good people of 
Compiégne were threatened with death if 
the town were taken, she hurled herself down 
from the Tower of Beau Revoir in the hope 
of rejoining them. 

‘ I had heard,” she explained to her judges, 
‘ that the people of Compiègne down to the 
age of seven years were to be put to fire 
and sword, and I would rather risk death for 
myself than continue to live after such a fate 
had befallen these good people.” 

Stage by stage, from dungeon to dungeon, she 
was brought at last to Crotoy on the borders of 
that part of Normandy which was occupied by 
the English. ‘They shut her up in one of the 
guardian towers which flank the estuary of the 
Somme. From her barred windows her view 
stretched over a panorama of sand-hills, beyond 


85 


COMPIEGNE 


which lay the immensity of the sea. It was 
the first time that she had ever contemplated 
that wonderful spectacle and it impressed her 
profoundly. 

The sea with its foaming waves, its limitless 
horizon, and the constant changes reflected 
from its surface! She, so sensitive to the har- 
monies of Heaven and earth, to the sun by day 
and to the stars by night, lost herself in the 
contemplation of that vast expanse, some- 
times silver grey, sometimes deeply blue, 
glimmering at night with the glitter of the 
stars. She listened with surprise to the vague. 
murmurings of the sea. When at the hour of 
high tide the sob of the falling billows came to 
her ears an immense feeling of sadness fell 
upon her. The English were coming, the 
English who had bought her so dear. Since 
she left Compiègne she had been the prisoner 
of the Burgundians, men of the same race 
and language as herself, who had used her 
with some consideration. But now, what 
could she hope from these fierce foreigners 
whom she had beaten so many times, and 
who, with their furious hatred towards her, 
would never miss a chance of injuring her. 
À terrible agony tore her soul and she prayed. 
But the Voices again and again replied, 
‘Take everything in good part.” 

86 








IN PRISON 


She had to wait thus at Crotoy for three 
weeks. One day the ladies of Abbeville 
came to visit her, to console her, and their 
tears for an hour or two were mixed with her 
own. 


87 


CHAPTER IX 
ROUEN—THE PRISON 


Joan was now in the hands of the English. 
They gagged her that she might not com- 
municate with the people, and conducted her 
under a strong escort to the Castle of Rouen. 
There she was thrown into a dungeon, and 
shut in an iron cage. 

‘They made for me,” she tells us, ‘ a sort 
of cage into which they put me. I was closely 
confined in it. I had one strong chain round 
my neck, another round my waist and others 
at my hands and feet. I should have suc- 
cumbed in this dreadful position, if God and my 
guardian spirits had not upheld me by their con- 
solations. Nothing can describe the touching 
care and the loving help which they gave me. 
Dying of hunger, half-clad, surrounded by 
discomfort and weighed down by my irons, I 
yet found in my faith sufficient strength to 
pardon those who tortured me.” 

It was atrocious treatment. Joan was a 
prisoner of war. She was a woman and yet 
they shut her up like a savage beast in an 
iron cage. A little later, however, the Eng- 

88 





AN AGONY OF MONTHS 


lish contented themselves by tying her to a 
great beam with two chains attached to her 
ankles. 

Thus began an agony of six months, an agony 
without example in history, an agony more 
painful even than that of Christ, for Christ at 
least was a man, and here we have to do with 
a young girl of nineteen at the mercy of brutal, 
stupid and sensual rufhans. Five soldiers, 
rascally fellows, the dregs of the English Army, 
according to the historians, kept guard day 
and night in her prison. Imagine what a 
young woman in chains might expect from vile 
and ruffianly men, drunk with fury against her 
whom they looked upon as the cause of all their 
defeats. These wretches overwhelmed her 
with ill-treatment. Often they tried to do 
her a violence and beat her brutally. She 
complained of her treatment to her judges in 
the course of the trial, and many times when 
they made their way into her prison to interro- 
gate her, they found her in tears with her face 
swollen and bruised by the blows which she 
had received. 

Think of the horrors of her situation—of her 
thoughts and fears as a woman—exposed to 
every sort of outrage. ‘Think of the continual 
want of repose and the broken sleep which 
weakened her bodily powers and sapped her 


89 


ROUEN—THE PRISON 


energy in the midst of these insistent anxieties 
and pains. Alone among these wretches she 
naturally did not wish to cease to wear her 
male clothing, and they reproached her for 
this act of modesty as if it were a crime. 

Her visitors were no less abominable than 
her jailors. The Count of Luxembourg, who 
had sold her, came one day to mock at her in 
her dungeon. He was accompanied by the 
Counts of Warwick and Stafford, together 
with the Bishop of Thérouanne, Chancellor 
of the King of England. 

‘ T have come to rescue you,”’ said he, “on 
condition that you will promise me never to 
bear arms against us again.” 

“You are mocking me,” she cried. “I 
know well that you have neither the will 
nor the power to do this.” And as he insisted, 
she continued, ‘ I know well that the English 
will put me to death, believing that after my 
death they can win the Kingdom of France. 
But if there were a hundred thousand more 
of them than there are, still they should not 
have this Kingdom.” 

These words made them furious. Lord 
Stafford drew his dagger to strike Joan, but 
Lord Warwick held him back from her. 

Then there were her judges who ordered 
an unworthy priest, a traitor and a spy, 


go 


THE VOICES SILENT 


Loyceleur, to introduce himself into her 
prison dressed as a layman. Pretending that 
he was a native of Lorraine and a prisoner of 
the English, he gained the confidence of Joan 
and got her to confess to him. During their 
interviews concealed notaries listened through 
an opening made for the purpose, and wrote 
down the confidential utterances of the heroine. 

Who could say what she suffered in the 
darkness of her soul? Abandoned by all, 
betrayed and sold, she touched the very limits 
of misery. 

She learned to know those hours of agony, 
of moral torture, when everything grows dark 
around us, and the Voices of Heaven seem to 
be silenced; when the Invisible loses touch 
with us, while, at the same time, all terrestrial 
furies and hatred are simultaneously loosened 
and poured down upon us. All great mis- 
sioners have endured these grievous hours, and 
she underwent more than all, this poor child 
exposed without protection to the most vile 
outrages. Why does God permit such things ? 
It is in order to test the soul and the heart of 
the faithful, to try their faith in Him, and 
finally, it is that their merits may ever increase, 
and that the crown which He reserves for them 
may gain in splendour and in beauty. 

But, one may ask, how could Joan, weak and 


OI 


ROUEN—THE PRISON 


bound, escape the infamous advances of her 
visitors and of her guardians ? How could she 
preserve her purity and her sanctity in such 
terrible conditions ? 

Well, in those terrible hours, more dreadful 
for her than death itself, the Invisible inter- 
vened. In the cold dark prison a radiant troop 
glimmered up. Beings whom she only could 
see, and whom she called ‘her Brothers of 
Paradise,’ hastened to help her, to sustain 
her, and to give her the strength to hold out 
against the dangers which threatened her. 

These spirits comforted her, saying to her 
ever, ‘ To suffer is to grow greater, to grow 
higher.” 

In the midst of all the shadows which en- 
folded her, a ray of hope always shone. Sweet 
chants came to her ears like some echo from the 
harmonies of space. Her Voices consoled her 
and kept on saying to her, ‘ ‘Take courage, you 
will be delivered by a glorious victory.” In 
her simple faith she believed that this deliver- 
ance would be earthly liberty. Alas! it 
was the deliverance of death, the death by 
martydom, described as victory even as our 
ancestors, the Druids, used to name it. It 
needed only that to give to this saintly figure 
its whole sublime radiance. 

Is it not the provilege of great souls to be 


92 


THE PRIVILEGE OF GREAT SOULS 


destined to suffer for a noble cause? Must 
they not pass through the crucible of trial in 
order to show all the virtues, all the treasures, 
all the splendours which areinthem? A great 
death is the necessary crown of a great life, 
a life of devotion and of sacrifice. It is the 
initiation into a higher existence. But in 
these hours of sadness, in this final purifica- 
tion, such souls are upheld by a superhuman 
strength, a strength which enables them to 
face all and to conquer all. 


93 


CHAPTER X 
ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


WE now come to the trial. During all the 
period covered by this hard and terrible 
captivity, Joan had to undergo the long 
and tortuous phases of a trial, the like of 
which has never been seen before in the 
world. 

Against her was all that the spirit of evil 
could suggest—wicked hypocrisy, cunning, 
perfidy and servile ambition. There were 
seventy-one priests and doctors, hard-hearted 
Pharisees to a man, all of them nominally men 
of the Church, but men for whom religion is 
only a mask covering their ardent passions, 
their cupidity, their spirit of intrigue and 
their narrow fanaticism. 

On the other side, alone, without support, 
without counsel, without defender, is a girl 
nineteen years of age, innocence and purity 
incarnate, her heroic soul in a virginal body, 
with a sublime and tender heart ready to make 
any sacrifice to save her country, to fulfil her 
mission with fidelity and to give an example 
of virtue and of duty. 


De 


THE CULPRITS 


Never has human nature risen higher on the 
one side, or fallen lower on the other. 

History has allotted the responsibility. I 
have no desire now to say anything which may 
re-awaken political or religious hatreds. Is 
not the name of Joan d’Arc, amid all glorious 
names, that which can rally round it common 
sentiments of admiration, to whatever party 
we may belong? 

The Church has tried to clear itself from the 
accusation which has weighed heavily upon it 
during all these centuries. To this end it 
has endeavoured to throw the whole odium of 
the condemnation of Joan upon Pierre Cauchon, 
Bishop of Beauvais. It has disowned him and 
covered him with its maledictions, but is 
Cauchon really the only great culprit ? 

Let us recall one incident. On the 26th 
May, 1430, three days after the capture of Joan 
before Compiégne, the Vicar-General of the 
Grand Inquisition of France, sitting at Paris, 
wrote to the Duke of Burgundy to beg him 
and to “‘ order him under pain of the Law to 
send to him as a prisoner a certain woman 
named Joan—a maid strongly suspected of 
crimes tainted with heresy, that she may 
appear before the Controller of the Holy 
Inquisition.” 

Thus, this redoubtable Tribunal of the Holy 

95 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


Office, which had become a mere phantom at 
this period, re-appeared and stole out from the 
shadow in order to claim the greatest victim 
that had ever appeared before it, and the 
University of Paris, the principal ecclesiastical 
body in France, supported its pretensions. 

Anatole France, who is well-informed on 
this point, tells us : 

‘In their fear of the Maid it was not merely 
a Bishop who got the Holy Inquisition to move 
in the matter, it was the daughter of Kings, 
the Mother of Learning, the beautiful clear 
sun of France and of Christianity—the Uni- 
versity of Paris. It claimed for itself the 
privilege of looking into all cases which dealt 
with heresy, and its opinion, which was asked 
from all parts, carried authority over the 
whole face of the globe wherever the Cross 
was planted.” 

For a year it kept on demanding that the 
Maid should be handed over to the Inquisition 
as being one who was suspected of sorcery. 

The same author tells us later : 

“After having taken counsel with the 
doctors and masters of the University of Paris, 
the Bishop of Beauvais presented himself on 
the 14th July at the camp of Compiégne, and 
claimed the Maid as belonging to his Depart- 
ment of Justice.” 


96 


PIERRE CAUCHON 


In support of his demand he produced 
letters addressed by the University to the 
Duke of Burgundy and to the Lord of Luxem- 
bourg. It was the second time that the 
University had claimed Joan from the Duke. 

It feared that others might set her free in 
some indirect way, and that so she might 
escape for ever from its power. At the same 
time its messenger was charged to offer money 
in exchange for the captive. 

Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who 
had been chased out of his See by the people 
because he had taken the side of the English, 
had thoroughly mastered the case and directed 
the whole trial. 

It is incontestable that he played the most 
important part in it, but the Deputy Inquisitor, 
Jean Lemaitre, checked all his decisions regard- 
ing the composition of the Tribunal, on which 
on several occasions he himself sat. When the 
Bishop of Beauvais was unable to do it, Jean 
Lemaitre in person presided. That has been 
established by all the documents. 

The Deputy Inquisitor signed and certified 
as authentic the reports of the sittings. ‘These 
were drawn up in duplicate by the clerks of 
the Tribunal. There is one copy in the 
library of the Chamber of Deputies, and it 
is sealed with the seal of the Inquisition. 


97 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


In trials for heresy it was the law that all 
decisions and judgments should be given by 
two judges, the Bishop and the Inquisitor. 
That is exactly what occurred at Rouen as 
elsewhere. It is impossible, therefore, to get 
away from the fact that Cauchon was supported 
by the Inquisitorial Tribunal. 

But this is not all. The Bishops of Coutances 
and of Lisieux were consulted in the course 
of the trial, and they approved of the accusa- 
tion. It is worth recording that the Bishop 
of Lisieux, Zenon de Castiglione, voted for 
the condemnation of Joan, giving as his reason 
that she was of too lowly a condition to be 
inspired by God. One may well ask oneself 
what the Apostles of Jesus, those humble 
workmen or boatmen of Galilee, or what 
Jesus Himself, the son of a carpenter, would 
have thought of this reply. 

The Bishops of Thérouanne, of Noyon, and 
of Norwich also took part in the trial, and all 
three joined in the cross-examination of the 
Maid. 

Cauchon surrounded himself with persons 
of importance and theologians of note. He had 
sitting on the Tribunal Thomas de Courcelles, 
whom later they called “‘the light of the 
Council of Bale and the second Gerson,” 
Pierre Maurice and Jean Beaupére, both of 


98 


PARTISAN JUDGES 


whom had been lecturers of the University 
of Paris. Also he had doctors and masters 
of theology, such as William Erard, Nicole 
Midi, Jacques de Touraine and a number of 
Abbots with their crosiers and their mitres 
from the great abbeys of Normandy. 

Of all these eminent clerics not one showed 
himself to be impartial. ‘To a man they were 
partisans of the English and enemies of Joan. 

The Prosecutor, Jean d’Estivet, the agent of 
Cauchon, a man without honour or scruples, 
was particularly forward in his expressions of 
hatred and in his violence towards the accused. 
No attention was paid to the legitimate de- 
mand of Joan that they ought to introduce 
into the Tribunal an equal number of clerics be- 
longing to the French party. She appealed also 
to the Pope and to the Council. It was in vain. 

All the judges, assessors, canons and doctors 
of authority received from the English for 
each sitting a fee which was equivalent to 
40 francs of our actual money. ‘The receipts 
for this are found in the account of the trial. 
There were nearly a hundred assessors, but 
they did not all sit at the same time. Those 
who were most hostile to Joan received addi- 
tional presents. 

The King of England gave to the various 
members of the Tribunal guarantees in case 


5 99 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


‘ those who were in favour of the errors of 
Joan should endeavour to drag them before 
the Pope, the Council, or any other body.” 

There had been many consultations at the 
Sorbonne, among others that of the 19th April, 
which was confirmed by the four Faculties on 
the 14th May. Allof them summed up against 
the Maid. 

One should add that the Inquisitor-General, 
Jean Graverend, preached a sermon in the 
Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields after the 
punishment of Joan, in which he repeated all 
the terms of the accusation and approved of 
the sentence. Shortly afterwards the Church 
named Pierre Cauchon as successor to the 
episcopal See of Lisieux. If at a later date he 
was excommunicated it was not in punishment 
of his crime, but simply because he refused to 
give up a right which was claimed by the 
Vatican. It was on a question of money that 
this prelate was threatened with the pontifical 
thunderbolt, which never for one moment 
menaced him during that long period when he 
had been the guilty wretch who had brought 
about the condemnation of the liberator of 
his own country. 

As a fact, there was not one voice raised in 
the whole of Christendom to protest against 
the iniquitous judgment of which Joan was the 

100 


ALONE IN CHRISTENDOM 


victim. She had no support either from those 
clergy who had remained French, or from those 
clergy who had gone over to the English. 
On the contrary, a circular from Regnault de 
Chartres, Archbishop of Reims, to his sub- 
ordinates, shows us the shameful state of mind 
of Charles VII and his counsellors. 

There has been discovered, in a document 
attached to the Charter of the Hotel de Ville 
of Reims, the analysis of a message sent by 
the Chancellor to the inhabitants of the chief 
town of his bishopric, conceived in the follow- 
ing terms : 

He tells them of the capture of Joan before 
Compiègne, and ‘that she would not take 
advice, and that she did everything according 
to her own will. God, therefore, had allowed 
Joan, the maid, to be taken because she had 
been puffed up with pride and had dressed 
herself in rich garments and had not tried to 
do that which God had commanded, but had 
followed her own will.” 

Meanwhile, Charles VII, surrounded as he 
was by evil counsellors, had, none the less, 
been the object of high and pressing solicita- 
tions in favour of the heroine. 

Jacques Gelu, Archbishop of Embrun, his 
ancient teacher, wrote to his royal pupil after 
the capture of Joan venturing to remind him 

IOI 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


of all that the Maid had done for the Crown of 
France. He prayed him to examine his own 
conscience thoroughly and to make sure “ if 
there were not offences towards God which had 
brought about this misfortune. I recommend 
you,” he added, “to get back this girl. To 
save her life, spare neither means nor money 
nor any conceivable effort unless you are ready 
to face unbelievable disgrace and the reproach 
of dire ingratitude.” 

He counselled him to order that prayers 
should be put up everywhere for the delivery 
of Joan that she might obtain pardon from 
whatever Tribunal should judge her. 

Thus spoke this aged Bishop, who had been 
the counsellor of the Dauphin during the 
dark days, and who dearly loved both the king 
and the kingdom. 

They could easily have ransomed Joan from 
the Lord of Luxembourg. They took no 
steps to do so. They could even have carried 
her off by a sudden attack. The French 
occupied Louviers, only a short distance from 
Rouen. They remained motionless. Those 
who before the journey to Reims spoke of 
attacking Normandy were now silent. 

At the least they could have taken legal 
steps to counteract the sentence of the Tri- 
bunal by bringing influence to bear which 

102 


GUILT OF THE ACCUSER 
the judges would have respected. The Bishop 


of Beauvais, who conducted the trial, was a 
subordinate of the Archbishop of Reims. The 
latter could insist that he should at least give 
him a complete account of every sitting. He 
abstained from all intervention. 

They could also have supported the protests 
of the family of Joan. They could have 
claimed an appeal to the Pope or to the Council. 
They could have threatened the English with 
reprisals on Talbot and the other prisoners of 
war in order to save the life of the Maid. 
Nothing was done. 

‘ [t is certain,” says Wallon, “that Joan 
was left to her fate. Her death entered into 
the calculations of those wretched, avaricious 
men, Regnault de Chartres, La Trémoille, and 
all the other debased characters, who desired 
to keep their ascendancy in the counsels of 
the King, and therefore, sacrificed not only 
Joan, but their Prince, their Fatherland, and 
God Himself.” 

When we weigh everything, the responsi- 
bility for the punishment and death of Joan 
seems to us to fall in an equal degree upon the 
Church and upon the two Crowns of England 
and of France. 

As regards the Church there is one thing 
which should be remembered. It is that if so 

103 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


many prelates and priests, and even the In- 
quisition itself, were concerned in the Process 
of Condemnation of Joan, it was also at the 
direction of the Grand Inquisitor, Jean Brehal, 
that the Process of Rehabilitation was brought 
about. If priests were found to condemn 
the Maid, there were others as numerous who 
were found to glorify her, among them the 
great Gerson and the Archbishop of Embrun. 

It is clear that Joan having been burnt as a 
sorceress, the Crown of France could not and 
would not remain under the suspicion of having 
had diabolical feelings. To bring about the 
Process of Revision which should clear the 
matter up, it was necessary for three long years 
to negotiate with the Court of Rome. All 
the influence of the King and of his Councils 
was needed, an influence which must have 
weighed very heavily with the Roman Pontiff 
at this time of schism, since three different 
popes were simultaneously disputing authority 
over the Christian world. It needed, there- 
fore, powerful pressure to bring about this 
revision, and without this pressure and this 
constant insistence, it is probable that there 
never would have been reparation. 

“The Tribunal of Rehabilitation,” says 
Joseph Fabre, “after waiting twenty-five 
years, granted impunity to the executioners, 


104. 


APPRECIATION IN ENGLAND 


even while it proclaimed the innocence of the 
sufferer. Furthermore, although it declared 
Joan clear from the crime of heresy, it ad- 
mitted that if she had been a heretic she 
would have deserved the stake, and thus it 
upheld the decision of the original judges 
so far as it involved this wicked principle 
of intolerance of which she had been the 
victim.” 

But however tardy and incomplete, let us 
accept this reparation for what it is worth. 
Let us remember, too, that processions of 
expiation were organised in the chief towns of 
France, and that the clergy took a large part 
in them. Let us remember, also, that at a 
later date the English themselves glorified the 
memory of Joan. One of their poets, Southey, 
proclaimed her to be the greatest heroine of 
the human race. Many voices were raised in 
England to demand that some sort of repa- 
ration should be made in the public places of 
Rouen by representatives of the Crown and 
of Parliament. 

Let us bear all this in mind and recognise 
that before the great figure of Joan all resent- 
ment must disappear, all hatred must vanish. 
It is not over her august name that a quarrel 
of parties or nations should spring up. For if 
this name is a symbol of patriotism with us, it 

105 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


is also, above all, a symbol of universal peace 
and conciliation. 

Joan belongs to all, though most of all to 
France. And yet if an exception should be 
made within our own nation in favour of any 
group or cult, if it is conceivable that Joan 
should belong to some of us rather than to 
others, inflexible logic would point out that 
it is to those who have known how to under- 
stand her life, to penetrate its mystery, and who 
even to-day try to learn by the study of the 
Invisible world those forces and those aids 
which have assured her triumph, and which 
they still desire to use for the moral good and 
the salvation of their country. 

Let us return to the judges at Rouen. 
When one studies the various phases of the 
trial it becomes clear that in the minds of these 
sophists with their frozen hearts, and in the 
thoughts of theologians already sold to Eng- 
land, Joan had been condemned im advance. 
Had they not all seen with rage and envy a 
woman raised up in the Name of the God 
whose representatives they claimed to be, yet 
pleading the cause which they, believing it 
to be lost, had betrayed—the cause of France ? 

All these men had only one object, one 
desire—it was to revenge on this woman their 
threatened authority and their compromised 

106 


THE TRIBUNAL 


dignity. By them, as by the English, Joan was 
pre-destined for death, but then death alone 
would not suffice for their political views nor 
for their hatred. ‘They wished that she should 
be dishonoured by denying her own mission, 
and that her dishonour should be reflected 
back upon the King and upon all France. 

To bring this about there was but one way— 
to obtain from her a recantation, a disavowal 
of her own claims. It was necessary to make 
her admit that her inspiration came from the 
devil. A trial for sorcery might lead to this. 
To this end they would use every possible 
means—cunning, spying, ill-treatment, all the 
sufferings and all the horrors of the hideous 
prison in which the purity of Joan was for ever 
exposed to danger. Threats and even torture 
were resorted to. But Joan resisted every- 
thing. 

Picture to yourself this vaulted hall into 
which there filters a dim light through the 
narrow openings. One might describe it as a 
funeral crypt. The Tribunal has assembled. 
Sixty judges are sitting there under the pre- 
sidency of the Bishop of Beauvais, to whom the 
English had promised the Archbishopric of 
Rouen if he would but serve their interests. 
Above them, a bitter irony, the image of the 
crucified Christ is displayed upon the wall. 

107 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


Then at the end of the hall and at every door 
one sees the glitter of the weapons of the 
stern-faced English soldiers. 

Why this display of force? All to judge a 
girl nineteen years of age! 

Joan is very pale, drooping, loaded with 
chains. She is weakened by the suffering of 
her long captivity. She is there alone in the 
midst of her enemies who have sworn her 
destruction. Alone? Oh, no! For if men 
abandon her, if her King forgets her, if the 
nobles of France make no attempt to save 
her from the English either by force or by 
ransom, at least there are invisible beings who 
watch over her, uphold her and inspire her to 
such replies as sometimes silence her own 
judges. 

And what a turmoil! Whatatumult! In 
their fury and excitement the judges argue 
and quarrel among themselves. Questions 
shower down upon her. They use all their 
ingenuity to entrap her by hypocritical pre- 
texts or to worry her by questions so subtle 
and so difficult that, according to the expres- 
sion of one of the assessors, Isambard de 
la Pierre, ‘the greatest clerics in the world 
would have found a great deal of difficulty 
in answering them.” 

And yet she answered. Sometimes with an 

108 


FACING THE ACCUSERS 


admirable wit—sometimes with a good sense 
so profound, and with words so sublime, that 
none could doubt that she was inspired by 
higher forces. Chill fear fell upon those 
present when she would say in speaking of 
them : “‘ They are there although you cannot 
see them.” But all these men were too deeply 
involved in their crime to weaken. 

Thus they tried to overwhelm Joan physic- 
ally and morally. They made her undergo 
interrogation after interrogation, sometimes 
two a day, of a duration of three hours each, 
and during all that time they compelled her 
to remain standing, charged with her heavy 
chains. 

But Joan did not allow herself to weaken. 
This sinister place was in her eyes a new field 
of battle. There she showed her grand soul, 
her masculine courage. The invisible power 
which inspired her broke out into vehement 
words which sometimes terrified her accusers. 

She addressed the Bishop of Beauvais : 

‘ Vou say that you are my judge. I am 
not sure of that, but beware that you do not 
judge me falsely, for if you do you will put 
yourself in great danger. I warn you so that 
when the Lord chastises you I will feel that I 
have done my duty in telling you. I have 
come from God. I have nothing to do here. 


109 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


Leave me to the judgment of that God from 
Whom I have come.” 

They asked her this perfidious question : 

‘“ Do you believe that you are in the Grace 
of God?” 

“‘ Tf I am not I trust He will place me there, 
and if I am that He will hold me there.” 

“You think, then, that it is useless to go 
to confession, although in a state of mortal 
sin ? ” 

‘I have never committed a mortal sin. 
My Voices would have reproached me for it. 
My spirits would have deserted me.” 

‘ What do your Voices tell you ? ” 

‘They tell me, ‘Fear nothing, answer 
bravely. God will help you.’ ” 

They tried to convict her of magic and of 
sorcery, pretending that she had made use of 
different objects which had a mysterious 
power. 

‘Is it your standard that supports you, or 
is it you who support the standard?” 

She replied, ‘ Whether the victory came 
from the standard or from Joan, it was all 
from God.” 

‘“ But the hope of having this victory, was 
it founded on your standard or on yourself ? ” 

‘ On God and on nothing else.” 

How many others in her place would have 

IIo 


FREEDOM FROM PRIDE 


resisted the temptation of claiming the merit 
of her victories? Pride may be found even 
in the most noble and the most pure souls. 
Nearly all of us are inclined to place a value 
upon our own acts to exaggerate their im- 
portance and to glorify ourselves above reason. 
And yet, all comes to us from God. Without 
Him we should be nothing, we could do 
nothing. Joan knew it, and amid the atmo- 
sphere of glory which surrounded her, she 
remained humble, attributing to God alone the 
merit of the work done. Far from becoming 
vain over her mission, she brought it down 
to its real proportions, claiming that she had 
only been an instrument in the service of the 
Supreme Power. 

“It has pleased God to act thus by the 
strength of a simple maid in order to repel 
the enemies of the King.” 

But how admirable an instrument! Full 
of wisdom, intelligence and virture! What 
profound submission to the will of the Higher ! 

‘ All my deeds and my words are from the 
hands of God, and my thoughts turn only to 
Him.” 


One day the Bishop of Beauvais penetrated 
into the dungeon. He was clad in his sacer- 
dotal robes and seven priests accompanied him. 

III 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 
Joan had been warned by her Voices. She 


knew that this interview was to be decisive. 

Her Voices had told her to resist bravely, 
to defend the truth and to despise death. 
Therefore, at the sight of the priests her 
weary body was drawn erect. Her features 
became animated and her eyes reflected her 
strong resolution. 

‘ Joan,” said the Bishop, ‘‘ are you willing 
to submit to the Church ? ” 

A terrible question in the Middle Ages, and 
on it depended the lot of the heroine. 

‘I refer all things to God, and God has 
always inspired me.” 

‘€ This is a grave saying. Between you and 
God there stands the Church. Are you willing 
—yes or no—to submit yourself to the 
Church ? ” 

“T came to the King for the safety of France, 
and was sent by God and His Holy Spirits—to 
that Church, the Church of the beyond, I 
submit in everything which I have said and 
done.” 

‘So you refuse to submit to the Church? 
You refuse to give up your diabolical visions ? ”’ 

‘I answer to God alone. As to my 
visions, I do not accept the judgment of any 
man.” 

This was the turning-point of the trial. 

112 


INSPIRATION AND THE LAW 


They desired to know above all things if Joan 
would prefer the authority of her revelations 
over the orders of the Church. At the time 
of the Process of Rehabilitation both judges 
and witnesses had but one desire, which was 
to show that Joan had hesitated and had then 
accepted the authority of the Pope and of 
the Church. Even to-day this is the argument 
of those who introduce the heroine into the 
Catholic Paradise. 

But in her trial Joan in all her replies re- 
mained resolute. Her thought was clear, her 
words determined. She had a profound reali- 
sation of the point which she was defending. 
In truth this solemn debate was carried on 
between two inflexible principles. On the one 
side was the law, the traditional authority, 
which supposes the infallibility of a power 
which had endured for so many centuries. 
On the other side stood inspiration and the 
sacred rights of the individual conscience. 
Inspiration showed itself there in the most 
convincing, the most touching form that one 
has seen in all the centuries. 

One must understand, then, that the Interro- 
gatories of Rouen, more even than the Process 
of Rehabilitation, show us Joan in all her 
grandeur, in all the splendour of her passionate 
replies, replies where her voice vibrated and 


113 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


where her glance, as a witness said, ‘ shot out 
lightnings.”’ 

Even her judges were fascinated. Never 
at any time had she shown herself more beauti- 
ful and more imposing. 

‘ [ answer to God alone,” she said. 

At last, faced by this resolution, by this 
will which nothing could bend, they hesitated 
no longer. 

On the gth of May, Joan was led into the 
torture chamber. The torturers were there 
with their sinister implements, which were 
prepared and heated in the fire. Joan stood 
firm. She spoke in defence of France and 
the ungrateful King who had abandoned 
her. 

‘ If you tear me limb from limb,” said she, 
‘and my soul from my body, I can say nothing 
else; 

She was not handed over to the torturers, 
not from any sentiment of pity or humanity, 
but because in her feeble state it was evident 
that she would die if she were tormented. 
What her enemies wanted was a public death, a 
striking ceremonial which would appeal to 
the imagination of the crowd. 

Her judges neglected nothing to cause her 
suffering. By a refinement of cruelty they 
took pleasure in describing to her the horrors 


114 








i F bas 
vanité WA. 





THE TOWER AT ROUEN CASTLE WHEREIN 
JOAN WAS THREATENED WITH TORTURE. 


After a drawing by E. H. Langlois. 





TRUE PROPHECY 


of death by fire. This punishment was one 
of which she was particularly afraid. 

‘I would rather be decapitated,” she said, 
‘than be burnt like that.” 

Far from being touched by her words, they 
insisted more and more. Weighed down by 
the weight of her chains, hemmed in on all 
sides by brutal enemies, at the bottom of an 
abyss of misery into which never a ray of pity 
or of hope descended, a cry of revolt some- 
times came to her lips. She cried out to God, 
the great Judge, against the wrongs which 
were inflicted upon her, saying: ‘‘ Those who 
desire my life may well find that they are 
endangering their own.” 

On another occasion she answered her 
questioner: “If you do that which you 
threaten against me it will be an evil day for 
your own body and soul.” 

As a matter of fact, many of her judges had 
a wretched end. All had to undergo public 
contempt and the reproaches of their own 
conscience. Cauchon died overwhelmed with 
remorse. The people dug up his body in 
order to throw it into a sewer. The promoter 
of the trial, Jean d’Estivet, died in the 
gutter. Several others appeared at the Process 
of Rehabilitation, twenty-five years later, rather 
in the character of the accused than as wit- 

I 115 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


nesses. Their attitude was piteous, while 
their language showed the trouble of their souls 
and the deep sense of their abasement. 

Her enemies by no means respected truth 
in transcribing the words of the accused. One 
day when she was being interrogated on the 
subject of her visions, the replies which she 
had formerly given were read. Jean Lefevre 
observed an error of transcription and re- 
marked it to Joan, who begged the scrivener, 
Menchon, to read it again. He read it over, 
and Joan declared that what she had said was 
exactly the contrary. Another time she said 
to them in a voice of reproach: ‘ You write 
down all that there is against me, and nothing 
in my favour.” 

But, in spite of all, the superhuman energy 
of Joan, her inspired language, her greatness in 
her sufferings, ended in making an impres- 
sion upon her judges. Cauchon felt deeply 
that she was an exceptional being, one who 
was inspired by Heaven. ‘The hideous con- 
sequences of his crime began already to appear 
before him. At certain hours the voices of 
conscience murmured and threatened within 
him. Fear seized the prelate, but how could 
he escape? The English were there; they 
followed with feverish attention the course 
of the trial. They were waiting with sombre 


116 


EXTREMITIES OF SUFFERING 


fury for the hour when they might immolate 
Joan after having tortured her and brought 
dishonour upon her. The Bishop of Beauvais 
could only see one way. It was to get the 
victim out of the way by assassination. ‘Thus 
he might avoid a public crime by a secret one. 
He thought of poisoning her and actually sent 
her poison, which she ate. Immediately after 
taking it she was seized with extreme vomiting 
and fell ill. Her weakness was extreme. They 
feared for her life. She was surrounded by 
treacherous attentions because it would never 
do to allow her to die in so obscure a way. The 
English had paid dearly for her and they had 
marked her down for the scaffold. But her 
robust constitution triumphed and immedi- 
ately the moral sufferings recommenced. They 
took advantage of her state of weakness. ‘They 
redoubled their pressure. They demanded 
from her an abjuration. Nothing was spared 
to attain this end—spying, lying, attempts 
upon her honour, and even poison. The Maid 
whom a whole people adored was thus over- 
whelmed with ignominies by her judges and 
her jailors. 

One scene—one might almost call it a comedy 
—was staged in the cemetery of Saint Ouen. 
There, within full view of the people and of 
the English soldiers, in the presence of her 


117 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


assembled judges at the head of whom were 
the Cardinal and four Bishops, Joan was 
requested to declare that she submitted herself 
to the Church. They pressed her, they im- 
plored her to have mercy upon herself, and not 
to force them to condemn her to the punish- 
ment of the fire. The executioner was, as 
a matter of fact, in his sinister cart at the very 
foot of the scaffold on which she was standing, 
and ready to conduct her, if she refused, to 
the old market-place where the stake awaited 
her. 

And there, on that cloudy day, with the rain 
sweeping down like tears from heaven, under 
the weight of sadness which crept up from the 
tombs around, she was the victim of an im- 
mense sadness of soul. Her thoughts wan- 
dered away from this field of the dead. She 
saw once again the old land of Lorraine, the 
scattered groves where the birds sang and all 
the spots which she had loved in her youth. 
She thought she heard once more the songs 
of the farm-girls and of the shepherds. The 
sweet and plaintive notes seemed to be borne 
to her ears by the wind. She saw once more 
her thatched cottage, her mother and her 
old white-haired father whom she had seen 
last at Reims, and who would be so broken- 
hearted on learning of her death. There 

118 


THE ABJURATION 


sprang up in her soul a great longing for life. 
To die at the age of twenty, was it not indeed 
cruel ? 

And for the first time the angel weakened. 
Christ also had His hour of weakness. On 
the Mount of Olives had He not wished to 
push His terrible fate from Him? Did He not 
say, ‘‘ If it be possible let this cup pass from 
Ines 

Joan, at the end of her strength, signed the 
document which they presented to her. Re- 
member that she did not know how to read 
or to write. And remember, also, that the 
document which they forced her to sign was 
not that which they put upon the register. 
À wicked substitution took place. They did 
not even hesitate at this odious action. To-day 
it is clearly proved that the formula of abjura- 
tion which figured at the trial and is signed by 
a cross is a forgery. This formula is not, 
either in its contents or in its phrasing, that 
which Joan signed. Not one of the witnesses 
in the Process of Revision swore to the identity 
of this document, and five entirely denied it. 
The document which we possess now is ex- 
tremely long. The three witnesses Dela- 
chambre, Taquel and Monnet have told us: 

‘We were all close by. We saw the docu- 
ment, and it was only five or six lines long.” 


119 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


‘The reading of it lasted about as long 
as a Paternoster,’ added Migiet. 

Another witness declared : 

‘ T know for a fact that the document which 
I read to Joan and which she signed 1s not 
that which is mentioned in the trial.” 

This last witness is none other than Massieu, 
the scrivener, who had caused Joan to pro- 
nounce the formula of Abjuration. 

Joan in her distress neither heard nor under- 
stood this formula. She signed it without 
taking any oath and without having a full 
consciousness of what she was doing. She 
asserted this to her judges some days after, 
saying: ‘‘ Î never even heard what there was 
in this document of Abjuration. I have 
never meant to revoke anything which touches 
upon my relations with God.” 

Thus, that which threats, violence and 
torture could not obtain from her they got 
by their pleadings and by their hypocritical 
solicitations. This tender soul allowed her- 
self to be influenced by a false semblance of 
sympathy and false signs of benevolence. 
But on that very night the Voices spoke 
once more imperiously in her prison, and 
on the 28th of May, Joan declared to her 
judges : 

‘ My Voice has told me that it is treason to 

120 


SUFFERINGS IN PRISON 


abjure. It is the truth that God has sent me. 
That which I have done has been well done.” 
And she put on once more the male attire 
which they had for a little time caused her to 
relinquish. 

What happened after the Abjuration when, 
in spite of their promises to put her into an 
ecclesiastical prison and to have her guarded 
by a woman, they led her back into her vile 
dungeon ? The following evidence in the Pro- 
cess of Rehabilitation will tell us. 

‘ Joan told me that after her abjuration they 
had maltreated her in prison and beaten her, 
and that an English lord had insulted her. 
She said this publicly, and she told me that it 
was on account of this that she had again 
put on male attire.” 

And again : 

‘In my presence they asked Joan why she 
had once again dressed herself like a man. 
She replied that she had done it in self-defence, 
because she had no feeling of safety when 
dressed as a woman among the brutal guardians 
who surrounded her. Many others as well as 
myself were present at the time when she gave 
her reason for having put on this dress, affirm- 
ing publicly that the English had been vile 
to her in the prison when she wore the dress 
of a woman. As a fact, I saw her in a sad 

121 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


state, her face stained with tears and so dis- 
figured that I had deep pity for her.” 

Such is the deposition of Brother Isambard 
de la Pierre. 

In this prison of the English, Joan drank the 
cup of bitterness to the last drop. She had 
sunk to the last gulf of human misery. All 
her sufferings were summed up in these words 
to her judges : 

‘T would rather die than stay longer in 
that prison.” 

And during these terrible hours, down in 
the castles of the Loire, Charles VII gave him- 
self up to the pleasure of the dance and to 
all the joys of voluptuousness amid the languid 
sound of violas and of rebecks. In the midst 
of his feasts he had never a thought for her 
who had given him his crown. 

In the presence of such facts one’s thoughts 
grow sad and one’s heart heavy. One might 
almost doubt eternal justice. Like the cry 
of agony from Joan, our own sad plaint rises 
up to the immense heavens and nothing but 
silence comes back to our appeal. 

We can only look into ourselves and try to 
fathom the great mystery of grief. Is it not 
necessary for the beauty of souls and for the 
harmony of the universe? How could there 
be good without evil which serves as a contrast 

122 


THIS PASSING NIGHT 


and shows up all the glory of it? Could one 
appreciate the benefit of light if one knew 
nothing of the night? Yes, the earth is the 
Calvary of the just, but it is also the school 
for heroism, virtue and genius. It is the 
vestibule of those glorious worlds where all 
pain which has been endured and all sacri- 
fice which has been made prepare us for 
compensating joys. Souls are purified and 
embellished by suffering; all felicity is sur- 
rounded by grief. In the end those who are 
persecuted have the better of it. All pure 
hearts suffer in this world. Love is ever close 
to tears. At the bottom of human luxury 
there is nothing but emptiness and bitterness, 
and spectres glide amid our most voluptuous 
dreams. 

All is a passing pageant in this world. Evil 
has only a short reign, and later, in the high 
spheres, the reign of pure justice spreads out 
into Eternity. No, the confidence of the 
faithful, the devotion of heroes and the hopes 
of martyrs are not vain things. The earth is 
but a stepping-stone to help us on the way to 
Heaven. May these sublime souls serve us as 
examples, and may their faith shine on us 
across the centuries. Let us chase from our 
hearts all sadness and vain discouragement. 
Let us know how to draw from our trials and 

123 


ROUEN—-THE TRIAL 


difficulties all the fruit which they offer for 
our own improvement. Let us make our- 
selves worthy to be born again in those better 
worlds where there is no longer either hatred 
or injustice, or bitterness of heart, and where 
life is spent in a harmony which ever grows 
closer and a glory which ever increases. 


After her recantation Joan was declared to 
be a heretic, and a schismatic, and was there- 
fore condemned without appeal. There was 
no hope now. She had to die, and die by fire. 
Such was the sentence of her judges. These 
judges, these orthodox men of the fifteenth 
century, would not recognise the mission of 
Joan of Arc. 

They were quite ready to believe in far-off 
manifestations of which the Bible speaks. 
They loved to talk of those distant epochs 
where messengers from on high had descended 
upon the earth and had mixed with mankind. 
They were willing, too, to believe in God 
Whom they placed far away in the depths 
of the Heavens and to Whom they sent their 
empty prayers from day to day. 

But for a God who lives and acts and shows 
Himself in this world in all the spontaneity, 
the youth and the freshness of life, and for 
great spirits who inspire their messengers with 


124 





HER JUDGES SELF-JUDGED 


a breath of their own powerful being, they 
have nothing but hatred, insult and outrage. 
The judges of Rouen and the Doctors of 
_ the University of Paris had declared Joan to be 
inspired by the devil. 
~ And why? Because these representatives of 
the Orthodox formula and routine had only 
a surface knowledge, a knowledge which dries 
up the heart, deprives the thought of all 
nourishment, and in some cases leads to 
injustice and even to crime. 

It is thus that at all epochs of the world’s 
history, the narrow supporters of the law 
have been the destroyers of the ideal and 
of the divine. It is thus that under the iron 
will of despotism they have broken that which 
is the finest, the greatest and the most generous 
thing on earth. The results have been clear 
enough. They have been terrible for the 
Church. Here is what Henri Martin says on 
this matter: 

‘ In condemning Joan the whole system of 
the Middle Ages, the doctrine of Innocent ITT 
and of the Inquisition, has pronounced its 
own condemnation. It had at first burned 
heretics, then it burned reformers who strove 
for a pure and moral Christianity, and finally, 
it had burned a prophet, a Messiah. 

‘€ The spirit had gone out of it. From this 

125 


ROUEN—THE TRIAL 


time on, it was clearly a thing which worked 
against the progress of humanity and the 
manifestations of the government of Providence 
upon this earth.” 

Yes; humanity has gone forward. Progress 
has been realised in the world. No longer 
can the messengers of God be slain on the 
cross or amid the faggots. The dungeons and 
torture chambers have been shut; the gibbets 
have disappeared. But other weapons now have 
been turned against the inspired who cham- 
pion a new idea. Sarcasm, doubt, calumny, 
these are the formidable and eternal weapons 
which are used. 

But if the terrible institutions of the Middle 
Ages, with all their list of punishments, the 
scaffolds and the stakes, have not been able to 
stop the march of truth, how can they hope 
to do it to-day? 

The time has come when man in the region 
of thought asks for no other authority than his 
own conscience and his own intelligence. 
It is for this reason that we must insist upon 
our eternal right of judging and of understand- 
ing for ourselves, 

The hour approaches, it is even now come, 
when all the errors of the past are leading up toa 
great day of reckoning before the Tribunal of 
history. Already the words and the actions of 

126 


THE SUBLIME INQUEST 


the great messengers, of the martyrs, and of the 
prophets are recalled and understood. Soon 
there will be a re-judgment of all our institu- 
tions. They will each be tested, and they will 
only preserve their moral power and their 
authority in so far as they have known how to 
give man greater latitude and power in his 
thoughts, and greater liberty to love, to rise 
and to progress. 


127 


CHAPTER XI 
ROUEN—THE PUNISHMENT 


WE are now at the 3oth of May, 1431. 
The drama draws to its end. It is eight 
o’clock in the morning. All the bells of 
the great Norman city send out a sad peal. 
It is the funeral chime—the chime of the 
dead. They tell Joan that her last hour has 
come. 

‘ Alas!’? she cried, weeping. ‘“ Do they 
really mean to treat me so cruelly that my 
virginal and uncorrupted body shall this very 
day be burned and reduced to ashes? Ah, 
rather would I be beheaded seven times than 
thus be burned. . .. Oh, I call God to 
witness the great wrongs and injustice which 
they heap upon me!” 

This thought of death by fire filled her with 
horror. She pictured in advance how the 
flames would mount around her, how slowly 
death would come upon her, how prolonged 
would be her agony, feeling ever these teeth 
of fire eating into her body. This death was 
that which was reserved for the worst 
criminals, and yet Joan, the innocent maid, 

128 


THE PLACE OF DEATH 


Joan, the liberator of a nation, was to 
undergo it. 

Here was to be seen all the baseness of her 
enemies—those enemies whom she had so 
often beaten. Instead of according to her 
courage and her talents that homage which 
civilised soldiers give to their enemy when evil 
fortune delivers them into their hands, the 
English condemned Joan to an ignominious 
end after every possible ill-treatment. Her 
body should be consumed and her ashes cast 
into the Seine. There should be no tomb 
where those who loved her could weep, or 
which might remain as a centre of memory 
for her admirers. 

She mounted on her terrible chariot, and 
they led her to the place of punishment. 
Eight hundred English soldiers escorted her. 
A weeping crowd pressed round her as she 
passed. ‘The procession came out through the 
Rue d’Ecuyére on to the old market-place. 
There three stands had been erected. The 
prelates and the officers took their places on 
the two side galleries. Here on his throne, 
clad in his robe of purple, was the Cardinal of 
Winchester, with the Bishops of Beauvais and 
of Boulogne, all the judges, and the English 
leaders. Between these galleries the stake 


had been piled. 
129 


ROUEN—THE PUNISHMENT 


It was a huge heap of brushwood, so large 
that it dominated the whole picture. They 
designed that the punishment should be long, 
and that the Maid, overcome by her torture, 
should cry for mercy and should deny her 
mission and her Voices. 

They read the act of accusation, an Act in 
seventy articles, in which was contained all that 
the most venomous hatred could invent to twist 
the facts in order to deceive public opinion, and 
to raise a feeling of horror against the victim. 
Joan knelt down. In this solemn moment in 
the presence of death her soul cleared itself from 
the earthly shadows. It saw before it the 
splendours of eternity. She prayed in a loud 
voice. Her prayer was long and fervent. 
She pardoned all her enemies and her execu- 
tioners. In the sublime sweep of her thought 
and of her heart she reunited two nations, 
and drew together with her love two 
kingdoms. As she spoke emotion seized the 
crowd. ‘Ten thousand people were sobbing 
round her. The judges themselves, those 
human tigers, Cauchon and Winchester, 
were moved to tears, but their emotion 
was a fleeting one. The Cardinal made a 
sign. Joan was tied to the fatal post with 
iron chains. Over her neck was passed a 
heavy collar. 

130 


THE CROSS 


At this moment she addressed Isambard de 
la Pierre, and said to him: 

‘ TI beg you, go and get the cross from that 
church there, and hold it up in front of my 
eyes until the moment of my death.” 

When they brought her the cross she wept 
and covered it with kisses. At the moment 
when she was to die this horrible death, 
deserted by all, she wished to have before 
her the image of that Other Who had been 
punished yonder on the distant hill of the 
East, and Who had given His life also as a 
tribute to truth. 

At this solemn hour she relived once more 
her short but brilliant life. She recalled the 
remembrance of all those whom she had loved, 
the peaceful days of her infancy at Domremy, 
the sweet profile of her mother, the grave 
features of her father, the companions of her 
youth, Hauviette and Mengette, her uncle 
Durand Lexart, who accompanied her to 
Vaucouleurs, and the devoted men who had 
formed her escort on the road to Chinon. 

In a rapid vision, the campaign of the Loire 
came clear before her, the glorious battles of 
Orleans, of Jargeau and of Patay, the brazen 
calls of the bugles and the joyous cries of the 
frenzied crowd. 

All this she saw and heard once more in her 

K 131 


ROUEN—THE PUNISHMENT 


last moments. As ina final embrace she wished 
to bid adieu to all these things and to all these 
people whom she had loved. Having none of 
them before her physical eyes, it was in the 
image of the dying Christ that she concen- 
trated all these souvenirs, all these tender 
remembrances. It was to Him that she ad- 
dressed her farewell to life amid the last 
throbs of her broken heart. 

The executioners set light to the faggots 
and columns of smoke curled into the air. 
The flame rose and flickered through the 
piles of brushwood. The Bishop of Beauvais 
approached the foot of the scaffold and cried 
to her, “ Abjure!”? But Joan, already en- 
circled with flame, replied : 

‘ Bishop, I die at your hands, and I appeal 
from your judgment to that of God.” 

The flame, glowing and leaping, mounted 
and still mounted until it reached her pure 
body. Her garments smoked. She writhed 
in her iron bonds. ‘Then her agonised voice 
cried out these final words to the silent and 
terrified crowd: 

“Yes, my Voices came from on high. My 
Voices have not deceived me. My revelations 
were from God. All that which I have done 
I have done by the order of God.” Her robe 
took fire and became one more flame amid the 

132 


THE LAST WORD 


furnace. A last cry arose up—the supreme 
appeal of the martyr of Rouen to the Victim 
of Golgotha: ‘ Jesus.” 

After that one heard nothing more save the 
crackling and roaring of the flames. 

Joan is dead. The outer world is the 
brighter for her presence. She rises above 
the earthly vapours. She soars, leaving behind 
her a brilliant train. Sheisno longer a material 
being but a pure spirit, an ideal being of 
purity and of light. For her the heavens are 
open in their infinite depths. Legions of 
radiant spirits advance to meet her, and to 
escort her, and the hymn of triumph, the 
chant of celestial welcome, resounds. 

‘ Greeting, greeting to the crowned martyr, 
greeting to you who by your sacrifice have won 
an eternal glory.” 

Joan has gone back into the bosom of God, 
into that inextinguishable centre of energy 
and intelligence and love which animates the 
whole universe with its vibrations. For a 
long time she remained there, then at last 
she came forth, more shining and more power- 
ful, ready for missions of another sort of which 
we may speak further. 

And God in reward has given her authority 
over her sisters of Heaven, 


133 


ROUEN—THE PUNISHMENT 


We may well pause here, and salute this 
noble virginal figure, this great-hearted girl, 
who after having saved France died before 
her twentieth year. 

Her life shines like a ray from Heaven in 
the dreadful night of the Middle Ages. 

She had come to bring to mankind, through 
her powerful faith and her confidence in God, 
the courage and the energy necessary to sur- 
mount a thousand obstacles. She had come 
to bring to France, in abasement and agony, 
hope and salvation. As a reward for her 
heroic unselfishness she had alas! received only 
bitter humiliation and treachery, and the 
crown of her short but marvellous career was 
a passion and death so sad, that they have only 
been equalled by that of the Christ. 

The father of Joan, struck to the heart by 
the news of the martrydom of his child, died 
suddenly, and was followed almost immedi- 
ately by the elder of his sons. The mother 
had thenceforth but one aim in this life, 
which was to persist in procuring the revision 
of the trial. She made attempt after attempt. 
She addressed request after request to the 
King and to the Pope, for a long time in 
vain. 

In 1449, when Charles VII made his entry 
into Rouen, she had some hopes, but the Pope, 


134 


THE REHABILITATION 


Nicholas V, gave evasive replies, and the King 
remained confirmed in his ingratitude. In 
1455, with Calixtus III, she was more successful, 
for the whole people of France supported her 
appeal. The Court was compelled to listen 
to the voice of the public. They had, at 
last, made the King understand that his 
honour was touched by the accusation of 
heresy which had served as a pretext for the 
heroine’s death. 

The rehabilitation was carried out rather 
in the interests of the Crown of France than 
out of respect for the memory of Joan. In 
these later days the Church has learnt how to 
exploit her ancient victim. 

At all times, Joan has been sacrificed to the 
interests of cause and of party. But there are 
thousands of obscure and humble souls who 
have learned to love her for herself. Their 
thoughts of love mount towards her, across the 
gulf of space. She is far more conscious of 
those than of the pompous manifestations 
organised in her honour. They are her true 
joy and her sweet remembrance, as she has told 
me many a time in the intimacy of our psychic 
reunion. 


Joan has long been misunderstood and un- 
recognised. She is so still by many of those 


135 


ROUEN—THE PUNISHMENT 


who profess to admire her, but one must admit 
that the error is natural. It arises from the 
fact that those who had made her a victim, 
and the King among them, in order to conceal 
their crime from the eyes of posterity, did 
all they could to misrepresent the part she 
played, to minimise her mission and to hang 
a veil round her memory. It was for this 
reason that they destroyed the register of the 
proceedings of Poitiers, that certain documents 
of the trial at Rouen, according to Quicherat, 
were falsified, and that the witnesses of the 
Process of Rehabilitation were reported with 
a constant idea of making things easier for 
those in authority. 

It was said in the records of Rouen that on 
the very morning of her punishment, in her 
last examination which was undergone in 
prison without any scrivener being present 
and quoted only by Cauchon some days later, 
Joan had denied her Voices. It is false. She 
never denied her Voices. In one moment 
of weakness she had submitted herself to 
the Church. In that act alone lies what 
they have called “The Abjuration of St. 
Ouen.” 

It is through misrepresentations of this sort 
that the shadow has so long darkened the 
memory of Joan. At the beginning of the 

136 


ULTIMATE JUSTICE 


nineteenth century there remained only a 
feeble remembrance of her, an incomplete 
and shadowy legend. But the justice of 
history has willed that the truth should come 
to the light of day. From the ranks of the 
people there have risen up persevering stu- 
dents—Michelet, Henri Martin, Senator Fabre, 
above all, Quicherat, Director of the School 
of Records. There were priests also among 
them. All these conscientious workers have 
carefully scrutinised the yellow parchments, 
thick with the dust of libraries. Many 
unknown manuscripts have been discovered. 
They have found in the Royal Ordinance of 
that time, in the Chronicles of St. Denis, and 
in a number of archives deposited at the 
Library of Records, and among the ministerial 
documents of the loyal towns, the revelation 
of facts which at last do justice to the heroine. 
This justice has come late, but it is brilliant, 
absolute and universally admitted. 

And that is why modern France has a great 
duty—the duty of repairing, morally at any 
rate, the faults of ancient France. The 
thoughts of all should be turned towards this 
noble and pure image, towards this radiant 
figure which is that of the Angel of the Father- 
land. All children of France should bear in 
their thoughts and in their hearts the re- 


137 


ROUEN—THE PUNISHMENT 


membrance of her whom Heaven sent to us 
at the hour of our disasters and of our destruc- 
tion. Across the ages an eternal homage 
should mount towards this brave spirit who 
loved France, even to death, who pardoned 
on the scaffold all the desertions and all the 
treacheries which she had endured, and offered 
herself up as a holocaust for the safety of a 
people. 

The sacrifice of Joan of Arc had an immense 
effect. In politics, it brought about the 
unity of France. Before her time we were 
a country which was dislocated and torn by 
faction. After her time there existed a solid 
France. Joan had gone down to her death, 
but through her inspiring soul the national 
unity had been attained. 

Every work of salvation is carried through by 
sacrifice, the greater the sacrifice the more 
supreme and imposing the work. Every mis- 
sion of redemption is finished and crowned by 
a martyrdom. It is the great law of history. 
It was with Joan as it was with Christ. It is 
through this that one’s life carries the divine 
seal. God, the sovereign Artist, reveals Him- 
self by incontestable and sublime signs. 

The sacrifice of Joan had another, even 
vaster meaning. It will remain a sign and 
example for generations and centuries to come, 

138 


THE DEATHLESS 


God has His object in putting such lessons 
before humanity. It is always to these great 
martyr figures that the thoughts of all those 
who suffer, and of all those who bend under the 
burden of sorrow, must turn. They are so 
many furnaces of energy and of moral beauty, 
where souls frozen by the chill of adversity 
may warm themselves once more. Across the 
centuries they throw a luminous trail, a track 
which leads and guides us towards regions of 
glory. Such souls have come upon earth in 
order to make us realise the other world. Their 
death has been the nurse of life and their 
memory has comforted thousands of the sad 
and the needy. 


139 


CHAPTER XII 
JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


Tue phenomena of clairvoyance, clair-audience 
and prophecy which appear in the life of 
Joan of Arc have given rise to most diverse 
explanations. Among historians, some have 
seen in them a case of hallucination. Some 
have gone so far as to speak of hysteria 
and neurosis. Others again have attributed a 
supernatural and miraculous character to these 
facts. 

The essential object of this work is to 
analyse these phenomena, to show that they 
are real and that they are governed by laws 
which have long been ignored, but which are 
now being slowly unfolded in the most im- 
pressive and detailed fashion. 

In proportion as our knowledge of the 
universe and of ourselves increases the idea of 
the supernatural recedes and vanishes. One 
realises now that Nature is one, but that in its 
immensity it contains great kingdoms and 
forms of life which have long escaped our 
senses. These senses are most limited. They 
only allow us to perceive the most obvious 

140 


THE INFINITE EXISTENCE 


things, the elementary constituents of the 
universe and of life, Their utter poverty was 
revealed when more powerful optical instru- 
ments—the telescope and the microscope— 
appeared, for these have enlarged in either 
direction the field of our visual perspective. 
What did we know of the infinitely small 
before the construction of magnifying devices ? 
What did we know of those innumerable 
existences which live around and even within 
us ? 

These things, however, are only the sub- 
stratum of life, but above us sphere follows 
sphere. Each contains forms of life delicately 
graduated from subtle ethereal intelligences of 
a human or even subhuman character, up to 
the regions of the angels, but all belonging to 
imponderable states of matter which science has 
now defined in many aspects, as, for example, 
in the radio-activity of bodies, the Rôntgen 
rays and in all those new developments which 
throw a light upon radiant matter. 

Outside those visible and tangible forms 
with which we are familiar, we know now that 
matter is to be found in many varied states, 
invisible and imponderable, refining itself more 
and more, and turning itself into force and 
into light until it becomes the cosmic ether 
of the physicists. In all these varied states 


141 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


and under all these aspects, it is still the 
substance in which innumerable organisms have 
birth, and which produces forms of an un- 
imaginable delicacy. Within this ocean of 
subtle matter there is an intense life about and 
around us. Outside the narrow circle of our 
normal senses there are great gulfs opening 
out, and a vast unknown world can dimly be 
seen, peopled by forces and beings which we 
cannot perceive, but which, none the less, take 
a share in our joys, as in our sufferings, and can 
even to a certain extent influence and help us. 
It is into this wonderful world that a new 
science is striving to penetrate. 

At a meeting held at the Psychological 
Institute some years ago, Dr. Duclaux, Director 
of the Pasteur Institute, expressed himself in 
these words : 


‘ This world, peopled by influences which we 
encounter without knowing it, penetrated by 
that Divine impulse which we feel without 
being able to define, is more interesting than 
the sphere to which our minds have hitherto 
been confined. Let us try to open it up by 
our researches. Immense discoveries are to 
be made there by which humanity will profit.” 


Marvel of Marvels! we ourselves belong in 
the most important part of our being to this 


142 





THE PSYCHIC LIFE 


invisible world which is slowly revealing itself 
to attentive observers. There is in each human 
being a fluid form, a subtle body, indestructible, 
an exact image of the physical body which 
is only its outer clothing. This form has its 
own senses, more delicate than those of the 
physical body which are indeed only a feeble 
reflexion of the psychic. 

The existence of this double or phantom of 
a living presence is established by innumerable 
facts and witnesses. It can disengage itself 
from its fleshly envelope during sleep, whether 
it be natural sleep or hypnotic, and so show 
itself at a distance. The cases of telepathy, 
the phenomena of duplication and of materia- 
lisation, the apparition of living people at 
points far from the spot where their bodies are 
lying, chronicled so many times by F. Myers, 
C. Flammarion, Professor Charles Richet, Dr. 
Darriex, Dr. Maxwell, and others, have estab- 
lished the fact beyond all question. The 
records of the Society of Psychic Research of 
London, collected by eminent English authori- 
ties, are rich in facts of this description. 

The fluidic body is the true seat of our 
faculties and of our consciousness, and is that 
which the religious in all ages have called the 
soul, The soul is not a vague metaphysical 
entity, but rather a personal centre of force, 


143 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


and of life which is for ever contained within 
its subtle form. It pre-existed before our 
birth, and death has no effect upon it. It 
finds itself on the other side of the tomb with 
all its intellectual and moral acquisitions still 
intact. Its destiny is to pursue across time and 
space its evolution towards ever higher states, 
always growing brighter in the light of justice, 
truth and personal beauty. The entity 
reaps in its psychic state the fruits of all the 
labours, the sacrifices, and the griefs of its 
successive existences. 

Those who have lived with us and who then 
continue their evolution in space do not lose 
their sympathy for our sufferings and our 
tears. From the higher planes of the universal 
life there sweep down for ever upon earth 
currents of strength and inspiration. Thence 
come the sudden illuminations of genius, the 
overpowering inspirations which sway a nation 
in some hour of doom. ‘Thence, also, come help 
and comfort for those who bend under the 
burden of existence. A mysterious tie unites 
the visible and the invisible. Relations can be 
established between the spheres of life by the 
help of certain specially endowed people who 
are able to waken and bring into action 
those psychic senses and those deeper vibrations 
which exist in every human being. ‘These 


144 


MEDIUMS 


helpers are those whom we call sensitives or 
mediums, 


In the days of Joan of Arc these things were 
not known. People had only confused ideas 
as to the universe and the true nature of our 
being. On many points these ideas were in- 
complete or erroneous, but since then, from 
century to century, the human spirit, in spite 
of hesitations and uncertainties, has risen 
from one conquest to another. Now it begins 
to soar. Human thought rises. We begin 
to look above the physical world and to plunge 
into the vast depths of the psychic, where one 
may trace the cause of causes, the key of all 
mysteries, the solution of the great problems 
of life, of death and of destiny. 

One is aware of the opposition which these 
studies have encountered. Critics even now 
attack those who courageously persevere in 
their researches into our relation with the 
Invisible. But has there not been a similar 
contempt, even among learned societies, for 
many discoveries which have been universally 
accepted later as brilliant truths? It will be 
the same in this case of the existence of spirits. 
One after another, men of science have been 
obliged to admit it, frequently as the result 
of experiments which were devised in order 


145 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


to demonstrate the opposite. Sir William 
Crookes, the celebrated English chemist, some 
of whose compatriots think him the equal of 
Newton, is one of these. So also are Russel 
Wallace and Oliver Lodge, Lombroso in Italy, 
Dr. Paul Gibier and Darriex in France, State 
Councillor Aksakof in Russia, in Germany 
Baron du Prel and the Physicist Zôllner. 

The sober man who holds a position mid-way 
between credulity and equally blind incre- 
dulity is compelled to recognise that these 
phenomena have appeared at every epoch. 
You will find them in all ages of history, and in 
the sacred books of all people. ‘The psychics 
of India, Egypt, Greece and Rome share the 
experiences of the mediums of our own day. 
The Prophets of Judæa, the Christian Apostles, 
the Druidesses of Gaul, the inspired peasants 
in the Cevennes at the time of the War of the 
Camisards, all drew their revelations from the 
same sources as our Maid of Lorraine. 

Psychic power has always existed, for man 
has always been a spirit, and this spirit holds 
open at every epoch of the world’s history a 
channel which leads to regions untouched by 
our ordinary senses. 

Constant and permanent, these phenomena 
reproduce themselves in every country and 
under every form, sometimes, it must be ad- 


146 


THE EVIDENCE FROM THE SCIENTIFIC 


mitted, common and crude, like the tilting of 
tables, the movement of objects without 
contact and the haunting of houses, but also 
in more delicate and sublime phases such as 
ecstasy, or high inspiration. These differences 
depend upon the quality of the intelligences 
which are acting upon the medium. 

The experiences of that illustrious man of 
science, Sir W. Crookes, are upon record. For 
three years he obtained in his own house the 
materialisations of the spirit Katie King under 
conditions of strict control. Crookes, speaking 
of these manifestations, said, ‘* [ do not say that 
it is possible. I say that it actually is so.” 

Some have pretended that Crookes retracted. 
It was not so. Mr. Stead wrote to the New 
York American: ‘ London. Feb. 9, 1909. 
I have seen Sir W. Crookes, and he authorises 
me to say, ‘Since my original experiences in 
Spiritualism thirty years ago I have never had 
occasion to modify the opinions which I 
_ formed.’ ” 

Oliver Lodge, formerly Rector of the Univer- 
sity of Birmingham and Fellow of the Royal 
Society, wrote: “I have been led to absolute 
certainty upon the question of survival by 
proofs which rest upon a purely scientific basis.” 

Frederic Myers, of Cambridge, who was 
elected as Honorary President by the Official 


L 147 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


International Congress of Psychology of Paris 
in 1900, lays it down in his great book, ‘ Human 
Personality,’ that the voices and messages 
come from the Beyond. Speaking of Mrs. 
Thompson the medium, he says, “I believe 
that the greater part of these messages come 
from Spirits which make temporary use of the 
organism of mediums in order to send them.” 

The famous Professor Lombroso, of Turin, 
declared in ‘ La Lettura”: ‘The cases of 
haunted houses in which for years apparitions 
and noises made themselves manifest as a 
sequence to tragic deaths—facts which are 
independent of the presence of mediums— 
argue in favour of the intervention of the dead. 
There are many cases where such phenomena 
have been known to extend over several 
generations and even over several centuries.” 
(See Annales des Sciences psychiques. Feb. 
1908.) 

One cannot but realise the importance of 
such witnesses. We could quote many more 
if the scope of this book would permit it. 

We will now turn to the phenomena which 
occurred in the life of Joan of Arc, and we will 
examine them. They are of vital importance, 
for it was by her extraordinary psychic faculties 
that she was enabled to acquire her rapid 
ascendency over the army and the people. 

148 


THE PERSONAL INFLUENCE 


They looked upon her as a being endowed with 
supernatural powers. The army was a mere 
collection of adventurers and brigands drawn 
together by the lure of plunder. Every sort 
of vice abounded amid these undisciplined 
troops, who were always ready to disband. It 
was amidst these shameless rapscallions that 
this young girl, eighteen years of age, had to 
live. Out of such ruffians, who had no respect 
even for the Name of God, she had to make 
whole-hearted idealists, ready to sacrifice all 
for a noble and holy cause. 

This miracle she was able to accomplish. 
It was thought at first that she was one of those 
women who are to be found among the camp 
followers of armies. But soon her inspired 
words, her austere manners, her sobriety, and 
the wonders which occurred in her presence, 
impressed these rude minds. The army and 
the people were led to look upon her as a sort 
of fairy or good genius. They spoke of her 
as one of those fantastic creatures who haunt 
the springs and the woods. 

Her task, however, became ever harder. 
She had to make herself respected and loved as 
a leader and, at the same time, she had to 
induce these grim fighting men to recognise 
in her the image of France—of the fatherland 
which she longed to restore. 


149 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


By the realisation of her prophecies and by 
her wonderful deeds she gradually inspired 
them with absolute confidence. They came to 
look on her as something almost divine. Her 
presence was to them a guarantee of victory 
and a symbol of celestial help. Loving her 
and trusting her, they were more loyal to her 
than the King or the nobles. On seeing her, 
their gross thoughts and their evil passions 
were hushed, and gave place to veneration. 
All looked upon her as a superhuman being. 
This is shown by the evidence of Jean Aulon 
at the trial. Count Guy de Laval, after seeing 
her at Selles-sur-Cher, when with the Court of 
the King, wrote to his mother (June 8, 1429), 
‘“‘ Tt is a truly divine thing to see and to hear 
Her? | 

Without occult help how could a simple 
country girl acquire such prestige and attain 
such success ? All she had known of war during 
her youth—the perpetual alarms of the peasants, 
the sacked villages, the groans of the wounded 
and dying, the roaring of the flames—would 
rather tend to repel her from the career of 
arms. But she was chosen from on high to 
raise France from her abasement and to instil 
the idea of Country into every heart. It was 
for this that these marvellous gifts and this 
immense support were granted. 

150 


THE CASES OF PROPHECY 


Let us examine more closely the nature and 
the range of the psychic faculties of Joan. First 
of all, there were these mysterious voices which 
she used to hear in the silence of the woods, in 
the midst of the tumult of battle, in the 
depths of her dungeon, and even in the presence 
of her judges. ‘These voices were often accom- 
panied by visions, as she herself stated in the 
course of a dozen different cross-examinations. 
Then there were the cases of prophecy, cor- 
rectly announcing facts of the future. 

Are these facts authentic? On this point 
there cannot be the slightest doubt. The 
testimony and the documents still exist. The 
letters and the chronicles abound with the 
evidence. 

Above all, there is the Trial at Rouen, the 
records of which, though compiled by the 
enemies of the accused girl, testify even more 
strongly in her favour than those which came 
to light in the Process of Rehabilitation. In 
the latter the same facts are attested under oath 
by witnesses giving evidence before a solemn 
tribunal. 

Above all these I would place the opinion 
of one who sums them all up, and whose 
authority is unique. I speak of Quicherat, 
Director of the School of Archives. He was 
not a mystic or an occult student; he was a 


151 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


grave, cold man and an eminent historical 
critic. He devoted himself to a profound 
research and a scrupulous examination of the 
life of Joan of Arc. This is what he says : 

‘ Whether science can account for it or not, 
one is compelled none the less to accept the 
truth of her visions.” 

To this I would add that the new sciences 
can account for it. For all these phenomena, 
which in those days were considered so mira- 
culous, can be clearly explained to-day by the 
laws of mediumship. 

Joan was ignorant. Her only books had 
been Nature and the starry sky. To Pierre de 
Versailles, who asked her at Poitiers as to the 
state of her education, she replied: “IT do 
not know either A or B.”” Many gave evidence 
as to this during the Process of Rehabilitation. 

In spite of her ignorance, she had undertaken 
the most marvellous work that a woman had 
ever accomplished. In carrying it through she 
was fated to show rare knowledge and skill. 
An unlettered girl, she was destined to con- 
found and conquer the doctors of Poitiers. 
By her military genius and the cleverness of 
her plans she acquired complete influence over 
the chiefs and the soldiers. At Rouen she 
contended against sixty learned men, skilful 
theologians, she avoided all their traps and 

152 


EDUCATION AND PERSONALITY 


replied to all their objections. More than 
once she embarrassed them by her retorts, 
rapid as lightning and piercing as a sword- 
point. 

Now, how can one reconcile so marked a 
superiority of character with her want of 
education? Surely it is that there is another 
source of knowledge besides school learning. 
It was by constant communication with the 
invisible world from the age of thirteen, when 
her first vision occurred, that Joan acquired the 
powers which were indispensable for the accom- 
plishment of her arduous task. The lessons 
of our unseen guides are more effective than 
those of a professor, and more fruitful in moral 
revelations. Those highways of knowledge, 
the universities and the Churches, are not 
opened up by such means. Their representa- 
tive men read but seldom in that ‘ Book of 
God” of which Joan speaks, that great book 
of the invisible universe whence she had gained 
wisdom and light: 

‘ There is more in the book of Our Lord 
than in your books. I have a book which no 
clerk has ever read, however great a clerk he 
may be,” said she at Poitiers. 

By this she means that the occult and divine 
worlds possess sources of truth richer and more 
profound than those from which human beings 


153 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


can draw, and that these sources are often open 
to the simple, the humble, the ignorant, and 
those whom God has marked with His seal. 
They find there elements of knowledge 
surpassing all those which study can gain 
for us. 

Human knowledge is allied to pride; its 
development is associated almost always with 
pedantry and convention. It often lacks 
clearness and simplicity. Certain works of 
psychology, for example, are so obscure, so 
complicated, and bristling with so many 
difficult words that they become ridiculous. 
It is amusing to notice what efforts of the 
imagination and what intellectual gymnastics 
men like Professor Flournoy and Dr. Grasset 
have to use in order to bolster up theories 
which are as absurd as they are abstruse. “Those 
truths, however, which come from high revela- 
tion appear in brilliant clearness. In a few 
words uttered by the mouths of simple people 
they cut through the most difficult pro- 
blems. ‘I thank thee, Father,” said Christ, 
‘Thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
babes.” 

Bernardin de Saint Pierre expresses the same 
thought: ‘ To find the truth one must search 
for it with a simple heart.” 


154 


THE TRUTH OF HER VOICES 


It was, then, with a simple heart that Joan 
listened to her Voices, that she asked them 
questions in important cases, and confided in 
their wise direction until under the impulse 
of higher forces she became an admirable 
instrument endowed with precious psychic 
faculties. Not only was she clairvoyant and 
clairaudient, but her touch and her sense of 
smell were affected by the visions which 
appeared before her. 

‘ I have touched Saint Catharine when she 
stood in front of me,” said she. 

‘Have you kissed or embraced Saint 
Catharine or Saint Margaret?” they asked 
her. 

‘“¢T have embraced them both.” 

‘ Were they fragrant?” 

‘ It is good to know that they were indeed 
fragrant.” 

In another examination she expressed herself 
thus : 

‘ I saw Saint Margaret and the angels with 
the eyes of my body as clearly as I see you, and 
when they left me I wept, and I dearly wished 
that they could have taken me with them.” 

This is a reaction which is felt by every 
medium who comes in contact with the splen- 
dours of the Beyond, and the radiant beings who 
live there. ‘They experience a sense of ecstasy 


155 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


which makes the realities of life sadder and 
more heavy. To participate for one instant in 
the celestial life and then to fall heavily back 
into the shadows of our world, what a bitter 
contrast ! 

This was especially so in the case of Joan, 
whose exquisite soul, after finding itself for a 
moment in surroundings which corresponded 
with itself, and having received ‘ great com- 
fort,” saw itself once more faced by the hard 
and rough duties which had been laid upon 
her. 

Few men understand these things. The 
vulgarities of the earth conceal the beauties 
of this invisible world which surrounds us, 
and in which we live as blind folk might in 
the midst of Light. But there are delicate 
souls, beings endowed with subtle senses, for 
whom this thick veil of material things occa- 
sionally opens. ‘Through these openings they 
catch a glimpse of the corner of the divine 
outer world, the world of true joy and of 
lasting happiness in which we shall all find 
ourselves after death, free and happy in pro- 
portion as we have lived, loved and suffered. 

It was not only through these extraordinary 
facts, the visions and voices, that Joan learned 
to place implicit confidence in her invisible 
friends. Her reason also showed her that the 


156 


THE BASIS OF HER FAITH 


source of her inspirations was pure and elevated, 
for her Voices guided her always towards 
useful action associated with devotion and 
self-sacrifice. While certain mystics lose them- 
selves in barren meditations, in the case of 
Joan psychic phenomena all tended towards 
the realisation of a great task. Hence came her 
invincible faith. 

‘ I believe as firmly,” said she to her judges, 
‘* in the doings and the sayings of St. Michael, 
who has appeared to me, as I believe that Our 
Lord Jesus Christ has suffered death and the 
passion for us, and that which compels me 
to believe it is the good advice, the comfort 
and the proofs which he has given me.” 

In her judgment it was the moral side of 
these manifestations which constituted a proof 
and guarantee of their authenticity. By their 
good advice, by their constant support, and 
by the wise instructions which they gave 
her, she recognised in her guides missioners 
from on high. 

In the course of her trial as well as in her 
warlike operations these Voices advised her 
what to do or say. She had recourse to them 
in all cases of difficulty. 

‘€ T asked advice from the Voice as to what 
I ought to answer, asking It in turn to take 
counsel with Our Lord, and the Voice 


157 


JOAN’S SECRET POWER 


answered me, ‘Speak out bravely, God will 
aid you.’ ”’ 

Her judges interrogated her on this point. 

‘ How do you explain that your Saints can 
answer you ? ”’ 

‘ When I make a request to Saint Catharine,” 
Joan replied, ‘then she and Saint Margaret 
make the same request to God, and then, by 
permission of God, they give me the reply.” 

Thus for all those who know how to ask help 
from the invisible with humility and prayer, 
the Divine Thought streams through sphere 
to sphere from the height of space down to the 
depth of humanity. But all cannot see this 
as Joan did. 

When the Voices were silent she refused to 
reply upon any important question. 

‘ T cannot answer you that yet. I have not 
had God’s permission.” 

‘€ I feel that I cannot fully tell you all that 
I know. I have a very great fear of doing 
wrong by saying something which may be dis- 
pleasing to my Voices, who may not wish 
that I should give you an answer.” 

Admirable discretion which many would 
do well to imitate when the voices of wisdom 
and of conscience do not order them to speak ! 

To the very end of her tragic life Joan 
showed a great love for her invisible guides 

158 


SUBMISSION 


and complete confidence in their protection. 
Even when they seemed to abandon her after 
having promised her safety she did not make 
any complaint or utter any reproach. 

By her own account they had said to her in 
her prison: ‘ You will be delivered by a great 
victory,” and instead of deliverance it was 
death which came. Her inquisitors, who neg- 
lected no means of making her despair, insisted 
on this apparent abandonment. 

Joan replied cheerfully and without reproach 
that she would submit herself to the will of 
God. 


159 


CHAPTER XIII 
WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


Tue record of the Saint of Lorraine presented 
so many cases of clairvoyance and of prophecy 
that they gave her by common consent the 
right to claim that she had the mysterious 
power of divination. Sometimes she seemed 
to read the future, as, for example, when she 
said to the soldier at Chinon who cursed her 
at the moment of the entrance into the castle : 

‘ Ah, you make light of God, and yet you 
are so near your death.” 

That same evening this soldier was drowned 
by accident. So was it also in the case of the 
Englishman, Glasdale, at the attack on the tower 
of the bridge before Orleans. She summoned 
him to appear before the King of Heaven, 
adding, ‘I have great pity for your soul.” 
At the same instant, Glasdale fell with 
all his armour into the Loire, where he was 
drowned. 

Later, at Jargeau, she saw the danger of the 
Duc d’Alençon, over whose safety she had 
promised to watch. 

“Gentle Duke,” she cried, ‘ retire from 

160 


REVELATIONS 


where you stand, for if not that cannon down 
yonder will be the death of you.” 

This foresight proved to be correct, for 
the Lord of Lude who took the place abandoned 
by the Duke was killed immediately afterwards. 

At other times, and frequently, she was 
warned by her Voices. 

At Vaucouleurs, without ever having seen 
him, she went straight up to the Lord of 
Baudricourt : 

“* T recognised him,” she explained, ‘ because 
my Voice told me. It said to me, ‘ There 
Nes 

After this opening Joan predicted to him the 
deliverance of Orleans, the consecration of 
the King at Reims, and finally told him of the 
defeat of the French on the Day of Harengs 
at the very moment when it was taking place. 
At Chinon, when brought into the presence of 
the King, Joan had no difficulty in picking him 
out from the three hundred courtiers amidst 
whom he was concealed. 

‘ When I entered into the chamber of the 
King,” said she, “‘I recognised him among 
the others on account of my Voices, which 
revealed him to me.” 

In a private conversation she told him the 
very words of a prayer which he had addressed 
to God when he was alone in his Oratory. 


161 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


Her Voices told her that the sword of Charles 
Martel was buried in the Church of Saint 
Catharine de Fierbois, and caused her to send 
and get it. 

_ Again it was her Voices which awoke her at 
Orleans when, overcome with fatigue, she 
had thrown herself upon a bed and knew 
nothing of the attack upon the castle of Saint 
Loup. | 

‘ My Voice tells me that I must go against 
the English,” she suddenly cried. ‘ You did 
not tell me that the blood of France is being 
poured out.” 

Joan knew, because she had been warned by 
her guides, that she would be wounded by an 
arrow at the attack of Tourelles, 7th May, 
1429. A letter from the representative of 
Brabant, which is preserved in the archives 
of Brussels (dated 22nd April that same year, 
so that it was written fifteen days before the 
event), related this prophecy and the manner 
in which it would be fulfilled. On the eve 
of the battle Joan said again : 

‘To-morrow my blood will be shed.” 

On this same day she predicted against all 
probability that the triumphant army would 
enter into Orleans over the bridge which at 
that time was broken down. That is what 
did occur. 


162 





Alinart photo. 


CHARLES VII. 


From the portrait at the Louvre. 






1 » AY 
wae À Ries 


WARNINGS 


When the town was delivered Joan insisted 
that the King should not delay his departure 
for Reims, repeating, “I will only be with 
you for one year. It is needful, then, that you 
use me to the full.” 

What foresight as to her own short career! 


She was also warned by her Voices of the 
coming surrender of Troyes, and later of her 
own captivity. 

‘ In Easter week when I was near the moat 
of Melun my Voices told me that I should be 
taken before the Feast of St. John,” said she 
to her judges at Rouen, ‘ and I prayed then 
that when taken I should die at once rather 
than linger in the torments of a prison. They 
answered me, ‘ T'ake everything as it comes. 
It is needful that it should be as we say.’ But 
they did not tell me the exact hour.” In this 
connection we may quote her striking reply to 
her inquisitors, ‘ If I had known the hour I 
would not have gone if only my own free will 
were concerned. None the less, I would have 
done what was ordered by my Voices, come 
what might.” 

They tell also of a touching scene in the 
church of Compiégne. She said, weeping, 
to those around her : 

‘ Dear friends and comrades, they will sell 


M 163 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


and betray me. Soon I shall be handed over 
for execution. Pray for me.” 

In prison her guides told her to her great 
joy of the relief of Compiégne. She had also 
a revelation of her own tragic end in a form 
which she did not understand, but which her 
judges read clearly. 

‘My Voices told me also that I should be 
delivered. They added, ‘ Take all in good 
part, do not trouble over your sufferings. 
Through them you will come at last to the 
Kingdom of Paradise.’ ” 

Often these Voices told her of the secret 
councils which were held by the jealous 
captains, which they concealed from her in 
order that they might discuss privately the 
state of the war. But suddenly Joan would 
appear. She had learned in advance what 
their plots had been and she would frustrate 
them. 

‘ You have been at your council, and I have 
been at mine. The council of God will be 
fulfilled. Yours will come to nought.” 

Was it not also to the inspiration of her 
guides that Joan owed those eminent qualities 
which make the great general—knowledge of 
strategy and cleverness in using artillery—a 
thing which at that age was new? 

How was it that she knew that the French 

164 


GREAT MORAL STRENGTH 


preferred to fight in the open rather than 
to defend ramparts? And how could it be 
explained in any normal way that a simple 
young shepherdess should become in a single 
day an incomparable leader and a consummate 
general ? 

Her mediumship took varied forms. ‘These 
faculties, which are scattered and attenuated 
among many individuals in our time, were all 
united in her, forming a single powerful 
whole. 

They were also increased by her great moral 
strength. The heroine was the interpreter 
and the agent of a world which is invisible, 
subtle, etheric, extending over and above our 
own and communicating its vibrations, its 
harmonies and its Voices to certain human 
beings specially endowed to receive them. 

The phenomena which filled the life of Joan 
all made for a single end. ‘The mission imposed 
upon her by those high beings, whose nature 
and character it is beyond us to define, was 
definite and precise. It was announced be- 
forehand and was carried out upon those very 
lines. All her history bore witness to it. ‘To 
the judges at Rouen, she said: 

‘ [ have come from God, I have nothing to 
do here. Send me back to God from Whom 
I have come.” 


165 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


And when on the scaffold the flames roared 
around her, she cried still: ‘ Yes, my Voices 
were from God. My Voices have not deceived 
mess 

Could Joan be lying? Her sincerity, her 
sense of right, which showed themselves in 
every action of her life, give the answer. A 
soul so loyal as hers, which was ready to accept 
and sacrifice rather than deny France or 
her King, could not stoop to falsehood. There 
is such an accent of truth and conviction in 
her words that no one, even among her most 
bitter enemies, could accuse her of imposture. 

Anatole France, who certainly does not 
mince his words, writes : 

‘That which stands out in the whole 
narrative is that she was a saint. She was a 
saint, with all the attributes of the sanctity of 
the fifteenth century. She had visions, and 
these visions were neither false not counter- 
fet 

And later he says: ‘No one can suspect 
her of falsehood.” 

Her loyalty was complete. In order to 
support her Voices she did not make use, as so 
many people do, of excessive or extravagant 
terms. ‘‘ She never swore,” said one witness 
on the Process of Rehabilitation, and when she 
wished to give emphasis she was content to 


166 


WAS SHE DECEIVED ? 


add Without fail”’ These words are to be 
found also in the Interrogatory of the Rouen 
Trial. They have a particular meaning in 
her mouth when said in her frank voice and 
with that honest bearing which was so charac- 
teristic of her. 

Then, again, was she deceived? Her good 
sense, her clearness of mind, her sure judgment, 
the flashes of genius which continually illu- 
mined her life, make it impossible to believe 
it. Joan was not the victim of hallucination. 
None the less, some critics have believed it. 
Most of the physiologists, for example, Pierre 
Janet, Ribot and Dr. Grasset, as well as the 
alienists, including Dr. Lelut, Calmeil and 
others, can only see in mediumship a form of 
hysteria or neurosis. In their eyes clair- 
voyants are pathological and Joan of Arc 
herself does not escape their censure. Quite 
recently, Professor Morselli, in his pamphlet 
‘ Psychology and Spiritualism,” has taken the 
view that mediums are weak or unstable 
natures. 

It is always easy to describe as mistakes, 
hallucinations or madness, those facts with 
which we are not in sympathy or which we 
cannot explain. Many sceptics think them- 
selves clear-headed when they are in truth 
simply the dupes of their own prejudices. 

167 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


Joan was neither hysterical nor neurotic. 
She was strong and enjoyed perfect health. 
Her manners were chaste, and although she 
was most attractive in appearance, her bearing 
imposed respect and veneration even upon the 
ruffians with whom she was brought into 
contact. She stood without weakening the 
greatest possible fatigue. 

‘ She has just passed nearly six days under 
arms,” wrote, on the 21st June, 1429, Percival 
de Bourgainvilliers, Chamberlain of Charles VII, 
‘and when she was on horseback she roused 
the admiration of her companions in arms by 
the length of time she could remain in the 
saddle without being forced to dismount.” 

Her endurance is proved by many witnesses. 

‘ She carried herself in such a fashion,” 
said the Chevalier Thibault d’Armagnac, 
‘ that no man could possibly bear the hard- 
ships of war better than she.” All her 
captains marvelled at the pains and fatigues 
which she endured. 

The same may be said as to her austerity. 
We have many witnesses on this point, some 
of whom lived with her for a time like Dame 
Colette, and others who habitually surrounded 
her. Let us quote the words of her page, 
Louis de Contes : ‘ Joan was very self-denying. 
Often in a whole day she only ate a morsel of 

168 


PHYSICAL QUALITIES 


bread. I wondered that she should eat so 
little. When she was leading her ordinary life 
she never ate more than twice a day.” 

The marvellous rapidity with which our 
heroine was cured of her wounds shows also 
that she had a powerful vitality. Only a few 
days would suffice and she was back in the field 
of battle. After having sprung from the tower 
of Beau Revoir and being seriously injured she 
was back in her ordinary health as soon as she 
could take some nourishment. 

Do facts like these show a feeble or a nervous 
nature ? 

And if from these physical qualities we pass 
to those of the spirit the same conclusion holds 
good. The numerous phenomena of which 
she had been the centre, far from troubling 
her reason, as is the case in hysterical people, 
seemed on the contrary to have strengthened 
it, if one may judge by the lucid, short, decisive 
and unexpected replies which she made to her 
questioners at Rouen. Her memory remained 
sure, her judgment sound. She had preserved 
the thoroughness of her intellectual faculties 
and the command of herself. 

Dr. J]. Dumas, Professor at the Sorbonne, in 
a note published by Anatole France at the end 
of his second volume, declares that he has not 
found, in all the testimony concerning Joan, 


169 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


any of the recognised signs of hysteria. He 
insists at some length on the objective character 
of the phenomena, on the complete inde- 
pendence of the seeress from the saints whom 
she saw. It does not seem that these condi- 
tions could be in any way related to any recog- 
nised pathological type. 

‘There is nothing,” says Andrew Lang, 
‘ which would lead us to think that Joan, while 
she was in communion with her saints, found 
herself out of her own body or unconscious 
of that which surrounded her. On the con- 
trary we see that in the terrible scene of her 
abjuration she could hear at the same time with 
equal clearness the voices of her saints and the 
sermon of the preacher, the errors of which 
she was able to point out.” 

We may add that never at any time was she 
obsessed, since her spirits only came at certain 
moments and usually when she herself called 
them, whereas obsession is characterised by the 
constant and unavoidable presence of invisible 
beings. 

The Voices of Joan have always some con- 
nection with her great mission; what they 
say is never puerile. They have always a 
reason for coming. They do not contradict 
themselves, and they do not stultify themselves 
by the erroneous beliefs of those days, as would 

170 


INDEPENDENCE OF MIND 


have been natural if Joan were predisposed to 
hallucination. Far from giving faith to hob- 
goblins, to the virtues of the Mandragora, and 
to the hundred other false ideas of that epoch, 
she shows in her Interrogatory her ignorance on 
these points, or else indicates the contempt 
with which she regarded them. 

In the case of Joan there was none of that 
egotistical feeling, none of that conceit which 
characterises hallucinated people, who usually 
attribute great importance to their own little 
persons and imagine that they are surrounded 
by enemies and persecutors. Under her divine 
inspiration her thoughts were turned only 
towards France and her King. 

The great alienist, Pierre de Boismont, who 
made an effective study of the question, sees 
in Joan a high degree of independence of mind. 
None the less, he thinks there is an element of 
hallucination in the phenomena which surround 
her, but he gives them a physiological rather 
than a pathological explanation. By that he 
means that these hallucinations have not pre- 
vented her from retaining a perfectly sane mind. 
They were the outcome of mental exaltation, 
which had in it nothing morbid. According 
to him the conception of a directing idea had 
formed itself in the brain of Joan, and he sees 
in her a chosen soul, one of those ‘‘ Messengers 


171 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


who are sent to us from the mysterious depths 
of the Infinite.” 

Without being of the same opinion as the 
celebrated Salpêtrière expert as to the deter- 
mining causes of these phenomena, Dr. Dupouy 
attributes them to the influence of celestial 
beings, and comes to the same general con- 
clusion. In his opinion, however, the imagina- 
tion of Joan had the effect of making those 
angelic personalities, who served her as guides, 
objective. We may adopt this method of 
looking at the matter, since we know that she 
considered these saints as being the same as 
those whose images decorated the Church of 
Domremy. 

But again I ask: How could one attribute to 
hallucination Voices which awoke her in her 
sleep in order to warn her of present or future 
events, as was the case at Orleans and during 
her trial at Rouen ? How, too, could we imagine 
this in the case of voices which advised her to 
act entirely differently from the way in which 
she would wish? During her captivity in the 
tower of Beau Revoir she received much advice 
from her guides, who desired to save her from 
making a mistake, but none the less they could 
not prevent her from springing from the top 
of the tower, and she lived to repent it. 

To say with Lavisse, Anatole France and 

172 


THE VOICES EXTERIOR 


others, that the Voice heard by Joan was that 
of her own conscience seems to be equally at 
variance with the facts. Everything shows 
that the Voices were exterior to herself. The 
phenomenon was not within her own mind, 
since she was awakened, as we have seen, by 
the appeals of her guides and sometimes could 
only catch the last few words of what they 
said. 

She could only hear them well in hours of 
silence, as Anatole France remarks: “The 
turmoil of the prison and the noises of her 
guards”? prevented her from understanding 
the words. There is, then, every evidence that 
they came from without. A noise would not 
stand in the way of an internal voice which was 
speaking in the secrecy of one’s own soul. 

Let us, then, end our examination by realis- 
ing once for all that in Joan we are in the 
presence of a great medium. 

With all respect to Dr. Morselli and so many 
others, mediumship does not show itself only 
in the case of feeble spirits or of minds which 
have a tendency to madness. 

There are geniuses of many orders, Petrarch, 
Pascal, Lafontaine, Goethe, Sardou, Flam- 
marion, and also men penetrated with a divine 
spirit, saints or prophets, who have had their 
hours of mediumship in which they have shown, 


173 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


sometimes in many forms, this faculty latent in 
their souls. 

Neither high intelligence nor elevation of 
soul is inhibitory to such manifestations. 
If there are many mediumistic phenomena the 
form or the outcome of which leaves much to be 
desired, it is because high intelligence and 
great character arerare. ‘These qualities found 
themselves united in Joan of Arc, and that is 
why her psychic faculties attained so high a 
degree of power. One may say of the Maid 
of Orleans that she realised the complete ideal 
of mediumship. 


But now a question suggests itself. It is one 
of the highest importance. Who were these 
invisible personalities who inspired and directed 
Joan ? Whence came these saints, these angels, 
these archangels ? What are we to think of 
this constant intervention of Saint Michael, 
Saint Catharine and Saint Margaret? To 
solve this problem one must closely analyse 
the psychology of clairvoyants and of sensitives 
and understand that they must correlate the 
manifestations which come to them with the 
forms, names and appearances with which their 
- education has familiarised them, and with the 
influences, beliefs, places and times wherein 
they lived. Joan of Arc was no exception to 


174 


THE INVISIBLE INTELLIGENCES 


this law. In order to describe her psychic per- 
ceptions she used the ideas, expressions and 
images which were familiar to her. That is 
what mediums of all ages have done. According 
to their own surroundings they give to the 
inhabitants of the occult world the names of 
gods, of genii, of angels, of demons or of 
spirits. 

The invisible intelligences, when they inter- 
vene in human life, find that they too are 
obliged to conform to the mentality of those 
with whom they are in contact, and to use the 
forms and names of those illustrious beings 
who may be familiar to them with the object 
of exalting them, inspiring confidence, and pre- 
paring them the better for the part which is 
ordained. 

Speaking generally, they do not in the 
Beyond attach so much importance to names 
and to personalities as we do. They are ful- 
filling high aims, and in order to realise them 
they make use of such means as the state of the 
human spirit, or as the level of inferiority and 
of ignorance in that particular place and time, 
seems to demand. 

One might possibly offer the objection that 
these super-human powers could easily have 
revealed to the Maid of Domremy their true 
character, initiating her into the higher and 


175 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


brighter knowledge of the invisible world and 
its law. But apart from the fact that it is a 
very long and difficult process to initiate even 
the most capable of human beings into those 
laws of the higher life, which none of us even 
now thoroughly grasp, it would have been 
directly adverse to the object which was in view. 
It is clear that it would have hindered the work 
in hand, a work depending entirely on action, 
if one were to create in the heroine a state of 
mind and a view of her position which would 
have put her into opposition with that social 
and religious order under which she was called 
to act. 

If one examines with attention what Joan 
reported of her Voices one is struck by one 
significant fact: it is that the spirit to which 
she gave the name of Saint Michael never 
once called himself by that name. 

The two other beings were described by 
St. Michael himself under the names of St. 
Catharine and St. Margaret. We have to 
recollect that the statues of these saints adorned 
the Church of Domremy where Joan used to 
go to pray every day. In her long meditations 
and her ecstasies she had continually in 
front of her eyes the images of these virgin 
martyrs. 

On the other hand, the existence of these 

176 


HER SAINTS 


two people is more than doubtful. What we 
know of them is contained in legends. About 
the year 1600 one of the examiners of the 
University, Edmond Richer, who believed in 
angels, but not in St. Catharine nor in St. 
Margaret, broached the idea that these appari- 
tions seen by the young girl were given to her 
under the outward semblance of saints whom 
she had venerated since her childhood. ‘The 
spirit of God which governs the Church 
accommodates itself to our infirmities,”’ said he. 

Later, another doctor at the Sorbonne, Jean 
de Launoy, wrote, “‘ The life of St. Catharine, 
virgin and martyr, is entirely fabulous from 
beginning to end.’ We need only add one 
other witness. Bossuet, in his ‘ History of 
France,” drawn up for the instruction of the 
Dauphin, does not mention either of these 
saints. In our own time, M. Marius Sapet, 
student of the School of Archives and member 
of the Institute in his preface written for 
‘ The Life of St. Catharine”? by Jean Mielot, 
is very cautious on the subject of the documents 
which were used in writing this work. 

‘ The life of St. Catharine,”’ said he, ‘‘ under 
the form which it takes in Manuscript 6449 in 
the National Library, has really no pretensions 
to canonical value.” 

We may remark that the more recent case 


177 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


of the Curé d’Ars presents many analogies to 
that of Joan of Arc. Like her, this celebrated 
miracle worker was exalted and in touch with 
spirits, above all with St. Philoméne, his 
habitual guardian angel. He also was sub- 
jected to persecution from a lower spirit named 
Grappin. Now, as in the case of Catharine 
and Margaret, Philoméne does not represent 
a living being, but is merely a symbolical name. 
It means one who loves humanity. 

If the names given to the invisible powers 
who influenced the life of Joan of Arc have 
only a relative importance and are in them- 
selves very doubtful, it is quite otherwise, as 
we have seen, with the objective reality of 
these powers and the constant effect which 
they produced upon the heroine. 

Since the Catholic explanations seem in- 
sufficient, we are compelled to see in those 
powers superior beings who concentrate and 
put into action Divine forces at those moments 
when evil lies heavy upon the world, and when 
men by their actions retard or threaten the 
development of the eternal plan. 

One finds these powers under the most 
varied names at different epochs of the world’s 
history. But whatever name we give them 
their intervention in the affairs of men cannot 
be doubted. In the fifteenth century we see 

178 


THE BACKGROUND OF NATURE 


in them the protecting genius of France, the 
great spirits who particularly watch over the 
fate of our nation. 

One may say that this is supernatural. No! 
What we really mean is that these are the 
elevated regions, the sublime heights, and if 
we may so express it, the background of all 
Nature. 

By the inspiration of seers and prophets 
by intermediary powers and by spirit mes- 
sengers, humanity has always been in touch 
with the higher planes of the universe. The 
experimental studies of the last half century 
have thrown a certain light on the life of the 
Beyond. We know that the world of spirits is 
peopled by innumerable beings who occupy 
every stage in the ladder of evolution. Death 
does not change us from the point of view of 
morality. We find ourselves in space with all 
the qualities which we have acquired, but also 
with all our weaknesses and our faults. It 
follows from this that the terrestrial atmosphere 
is vibrant with souls in a low state of develop- 
ment, eager to manifest themselves to human 
beings, and it is this which sometimes makes 
communication dangerous and exacts'a laborious 
preparation and plenty of common sense on 
the part of the experimenters. These studies 
show also that there are above us legions of 


N 179 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


benevolent and protecting souls, the souls of 
men who in their lives have suffered for good, 
truth and justice. They hover above poor 
humanity endeavouring to guide it along 
the straight road of its destiny. Far above 
the narrow horizons of earth, a whole hier- 
archy of invisible beings stretches up into 
the firmament. It is the Jacob’s Ladder of 
the story, the ladder of higher intelligence and 
higher conscience which is graduated, and 
rises up to those radiant and powerful spirits 
who are the agents of the Divine forces. 
These invisible beings, as we have said, inter- 
fere sometimes in the life of people, but not 
always in so brilliant and obvious a manner as 
in the case of Joan of Arc. More frequently 
their action is indirect and obscure, partly to 
preserve human free will, and still more 
because although these powers wish to be 
recognised, they wish also that man should 
have to make a personal effort and so educate 
himself for their recognition. 

These great facts of history can only be 
compared to those patches of light which 
may be seen from time to time between 
drifting clouds and give us a glimpse of 
the profound and infinite firmament beyond. 
These cloud openings suddenly close once 
more because man is not yet ripe for the 

180 


SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION 


comprehension of the mysteries of the higher 
life. 

As to the choice of forms and of means which 
these great beings employ when they intervene 
in our world affairs, we must recognise that our 
intelligence is too weak adequately to appreci- 
ate and judge them. Our faculties are power- 
less to measure the vast sweep of the plans of 
these invisible directors. But we know that 
the facts are incontestable and undeniable. 
At various times in the midst of the darkness 
which surrounds us, and the ebb and flow of 
events, in critical hours when a nation is in 
danger, or when humanity is wandering in 
the mist, suddenly a herald of the Supreme 
Power descends among us to remind mankind 
that infinite resources exist above them, and 
that they can draw upon these by their thoughts 
and prayers, so as to attract the help of those 
spirits whom some day by their merits and 
their efforts they may hope to join. 

The intervention in human affairs of these 
high beings whom we may call the anonymous 
workers of the universe depends on a profound 
law which we shall now define more closely 
in order to make it more clear. 

As a rule, as we have said, those higher beings 
who manifest to mankind do not give them- 
selves names, or if they do, they adopt sym- 

181 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


bolical names which describe their nature or 
the type of mission which has been assigned 
to them. 

Why, then, since man here below is so eager 
to claim his deserts and so anxious to link his 
name with any ephemeral work, why, I repeat, 
is it that the great missioners of the Beyond, 
the glorious messengers from the Invisible, 
prefer to remain anonymous, or to take alle- 
gorical names? It is because the laws of our 
terrestrial world and those of the superior 
world, in which these spirits of redemption 
have their life, differ greatly from each other. 

Down here personality is everything. The 
tyrannical ego predominates. It is the sign 
of our inferiority, the unconscious proof of our 
selfishness. Our present condition being so 
limited, it is logical that all our acts centre 
upon our own personality. We are always 
referred to that ego which means the identity 
of the being in its inferior stage of evolution 
amid the fluctuations of space and the changes 
of time. 

In the higher spiritual spheres it is quite 
different. Evolution there follows more 
ethereal lines—lines which at a certain height 
mean combination, association, and what we 
can only describe as a co-operative unity of 
being. 

182 


AN INFINITE PROGRESS 


The higher a member mounts and progresses 
in the infinite hierarchy, the more the angles 
of his personality disappear, while his indi- 
viduality spreads out and widens in the universal 
life under the law of harmony and love. 
The identity of the being of course remains, 
but his actions co-operate more and more in 
the general activity, that is to say, in the divine 
plan which that general activity represents. 

It is in this that the infinite progress of a 
personal life consists—to approach continually 
nearer to the absolute Being without ever 
reaching Him, and to conform our own work 
more and more fully with the Divine. When 
it has reached this height the spirit no longer 
calls itself by this or that name. It is no longer 
an individual, a limited personality, but rather 
one of the forms of infinite activity. It may 
be called legion. It belongs to a hierarchy of 
forces and of glories just as a spark of flame 
belongs to the activity of that furnace which 
gives it birth and nourishes it. There is an 
immense association of spirits all harmonised 
together by the laws of a glorious affinity, of 
an intellectual and moral sympathy and by the 
love which unites them, a sublime brotherhood, 
of which the ties of our earth are but a pale and 
fleeting reflection. 

Sometimes from these harmonious groups, 

183 


WHAT WERE HER VOICES? 


from these dazzling Pleiades, a living ray 
detaches itself, a radiant form approaches, 
like a projection of celestial light to explore 
and to illuminate the shades of our dark world, 
to help in the raising of souls, to strengthen 
someone at the hour of a great sacrifice, to 
hold the head of a Christ in agony, to save a 
people, or to rescue a nation which is on the 
point of perishing. Such are the sublime 
missions which these messengers of the Beyond 
come to fulfil. 

There is a law of solidarity in the Universe 
by which the higher spirits draw upwards to- 
wards themselves the younger or less developed 
entities. Thus a great magnetic chain con- 
nects the whole immensity of the cosmos, 
and binds all souls and all worlds into a single 
unity. 3 

And as the sublimity of moral grandeur 
consists in doing good for good’s sake, without 
any selfish reward for oneself, the ministering 
angels work under the double veil of silence 
and of anonymity, so that the glory and merit 
of their actions may have God alone as their 
source and as their end. 

Thus the visions and voices of Joan may be 
explained, and the appearances of an archangel 
and of saints who have never existed as indi- 
viduals with such earth names, but who are 

184 


BEAUTY AND POWER 


none the less living realities, radiant beings 
sent forth from divine sources. It is they who 
made Joan the liberator of her country. 

Michel—Micael, the Strength of God. 
Margueritte—Margarita, the precious pearl. 
Catharine—Katarina, the pure virgin. All are 
symbolic names which reflect moral beauty and 
high power, and represent a radiation from the 
divine centre. 


185 


CHAPTER XIV 
ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


Joan or Arc was then an intermediary between 
the two worlds—a powerful medium. For 
this she was burned at the stake. Such is, as a 
rule, the lot of messengers from on high. 
They are subjected to persecutions at the 
hands of men who neither wish to, nor can, 
understand them. The examples which they 
present and the truths which they speak are a 
reproach to terrestrial interests and a con- 
demnation of the passions and errors of 
humanity. 

It is the same in our days, although these 
are less barbarous than the Middle Ages which 
sent such people wholesale to the scaffold. 
Our age still persecutes the agents of the 
Beyond. ‘They are neglected, treated with 
contempt and vilified. I speak of true 
mediums and not of the fraudulent ones who 
are admittedly numerous. ‘These latter prosti- 
tute one of the grandest things in the world 
and by that they take upon themselves heavy 
responsibility in the future, for everything 
has to be paid for sooner or later. All 

186 


DIVERSITY IN MEDIUMSHIP 


our actions, good or bad, come back to us 
with their consequences. ‘That is the law of 
destiny. 

The manifestations of the invisible world 
are, as we have said, continually with us, 
but they differ much in degree. Deception 
and fraud are mixed sometimes with true 
inspiration. Beside Joan of Arc you will find 
Catharine de la Rochelle and William the 
Shepherd, a brace of impostors. There are 
also true mediums who overtax their powers 
and act sometimes under the impulse of auto- 
suggestion. The source is not always pure. 
Sometimes the vision is dim, but there do 
occur phenomena so striking that in their 
presence doubt ceases to exist, and of such 
were the mediumistic facts which adorned the 
life of Joan of Arc. 

There is in mediumship, as in all things, 
infinite diversity, a graduation of power, and 
a sort of hierarchy. Almost all great men with 
a destiny, prophets, founders of religion, mes- 
sengers of truth, and all who have proclaimed 
those higher principles by which human thought 
is elevated, have been mediums, for their lives 
have been in constant touch with the higher 
spiritual spheres. 

I have shown elsewhere, ee my views 
on numerous and detailed cases, that genius 

187 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


may often be considered as one of the mani- 
festations of mediumship. Men of genius 
are usually inspired in the highest sense of 
the word. Their works are like fires which 
God lights in the night of the centuries to 
illuminate the march of humanity. Since the 
publication of my book I have received numer- 
ous documents in support of this thesis. Later 
on I may quote some of them. 

The whole philosophy of history may be 
summed up in these few words, the communion 
of the visible and of the invisible. It all 
emanates from high inspiration. The men of 
genius, the great poets, the learned men, the 
artists, the celebrated inventors, all are agents 
for the divine plan in this world, that majestic 
plan of evolution which slowly moves the soul 
upwards. ; 

Sometimes those noble intelligences which 
watch over this evolution materialise them- 
selves in order to render their influence more 
direct and efficacious. Thus you have 
Zoroaster, Buddha, and above all, the Christ. 
Sometimes they inspire and help the mis- 
sionaries who have been sent down to give a 
stronger impulse to the springs of human 
thought. Moses, St. Paul, Mahomet and 
Luther were among these. But in every case 
human liberty is respected. | Hence the 

188 


THE “DAIMON” OF SOCRATES 


obstacles of various sorts which these great 
spirits meet in their endeavour. 

The most striking fact among the various 
signs which indicate the coming of these 
messengers from on high, is the insistence upon 
the religious idea on which such comings are 
based. 

This idea is sufficient to exalt their courage 
and to rally round them, even though they 
are usually of humble birth and devoid of 
material forces, innumerable allies who are 
ready to adopt their thoughts, the grandeur 
of which has impressed itself upon their minds. 

They have all spoken of their communication 
with the Invisible. All have had visions, heard 
voices, and recognised themselves as being the 
simple instruments of Providence for carrying 
out a mission. Alone, left to their own 
devices, they would not have succeeded. 
The higher influence was necessary and in- 
dispensable to the triumph of their ideas 
against which so many enemies raged. 

Philosophy also has had its glorious inspired 
figures. 

Socrates, like Joan of Arc, was conscious of 
the voices, or rather of one voice—that of a 
familiar spirit, which he called his ‘ daimon.” 
It could be heard at any time. 

One may read in Plato how Timarchus would 

189 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


have avoided death if he had only listened to 
the voice of this spirit. ‘‘ Do not go,” said 
Socrates to him when he was leaving after his 
banquet with Philemon, his confederate, the 
only one who knew of his intention to kill 
Nicias. ‘‘Do not go, the voice tells me to 
restrain you.” Although twice warned 
Timarchus did go, but failed in his enterprise, 
and was condemned to death. At the hour 
of his punishment he understood too late 
that he should have obeyed the voice. 

‘ O, Clitomarchus,” said he to his brother, 
‘€ [ am dying because I refused to act as Socrates 
advised me.” 

One day the voice warned the sage not to go 
further along the road on which he and his 
friends were walking. They refused to listen 
to it. They continued their journey and met 
a drove of stampeded horses, who put their 
lives in danger. 

After having experienced so often the wisdom 
of the advice given him by this voice, Socrates 
had every reason to believe init. He reminded 
his friends that, having told them the pre- 
dictions which he had received, they had 
never once been able to show that he was 
mistaken. 

Let us recall the solemn declaration made by 
this philosopher before the tribunal of the 

190 


INSPIRATION AND PHILOSOPHY 


Ephetes, when it was for him a question of 
life or death. 

‘ This prophetic voice of the daimon, which 
has never been silent during the whole course 
of my life, and which has never failed, even 
under the most difficult circumstances, to turn 
me away from whatever might harm me—this 
divine voice, I say, is now silent whilst these 
misfortunes have overwhelmed me. Why is 
it? It is probably that what is happening to 
me is good for me. We deceive ourselves in 
supposing that death is a misfortune.” 

In France also our philosophers have been 
touched by the spirit. Pascal had hours of 
ecstasy. Recherche de la Vérité, by Male- 
branche, was written in the darkness, and 
Descartes tells us how a sudden intuition as 
swift as lightning gave him the idea of his 
Doute Méthodique, a philosophic system in 
which we find all the germs of modern 
thought. In his ‘“ Medico Psychic Annals,” 
Brierre de Boismont tells us : 

‘ Descartes, after a long period of rest, was 
followed by an invisible entity, who persuaded 
him to continue his search for truth.” 

Schopenhauer in Germany was also conscious 
of being influenced from the Beyond. 

‘My philosophical postulates,” said he, 
‘ have been developed in me apart from myself, 


191 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


at times when my will seemed to be paralysed, 
and my individuality to have no connection 
with the work.” 

Almost all the famous poets have enjoyed 
similar invisible help. Amidst them we may 
quote Dante and Tasso, Schiller and Goethe, 
Pope, Shakespeare, Shelley, Le Camoens, 
Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Alfred de Musset 
and others. 

Many painters and musicians, Raphael, 
Mozart, Beethoven and others, have had 
the same experience, for inspiration is for 
ever flowing in long silent waves down to 
humanity. 

One may say that these ideas are in the air. 
So they are in truth, because it is the souls who 
are free in space who suggest them to mankind. 
Here one may search for the source of great 
movements of thought in every country. Here 
also lies the cause of those revolutions 
which destroy a country in order to re- 
juvenate it. 

One must recognise, then, that the phenom- 
enon of mediumship fills the whole of history. 
All our records become illuminated in this 
light. Sometimes it concentrates itself on 
one eminent personality and shines with a 
vivid lustre, as in the case of Joan of Arc. 
Sometimes it is diffused and spread over a 


192 


MANIFESTATIONS INNUMERABLE 


great number of interpreters, as in our own 
days. 

Mediumship has ever been the inspirer of 
genius, the educator of humanity, and the 
means which God employs to elevate and to 
change society. In the fifteenth century it 
served to draw France out of the abyss of 
trouble in which she was plunged. To-day 
it is like a fresh breeze which passes over the 
world, and brings renewed life to many souls 
stupefied by materialism, and to many truths 
thrust into the shade of oblivion. 

The phenomena of clairvoyance, clair- 
audience, the visions of the dead, the mani- 
festations of invisible life through materialisa- 
tion, automatic writing, raps, etc., are in- 
numerable. Every day they increase amongst 
us. 

The enquiries of many learned societies, 
the experience and the records of eminent 
savants, and of famous public men some of 
whose names we have given leave no doubt 
at all as to the reality of the facts. They have 
been observed under conditions which put 
cheating out of the question. We will quote 
only a few of the more recent which present 
analogies to the life of Joan of Arc. 

First of all, let us take the Voices. 

In ‘ Human Personality,” F. Myers tells us 


193 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


of the voices heard by a friend under cir- 
cumstances of danger. 

François Coppée tells in the same way of a 
mysterious voice which called him by his 
name at certain critical moments of his life, 
so that even when asleep he has been awakened 
by its intervention. 

‘“‘ Assuredly I was not dreaming at that 
moment,” says he, “and the proof is that in 
spite of the great emotion and the heart 
palpitations which I felt, I have always instantly 
replied, ‘Who is there? Who is it that is 
speaking to me?’”’ But never has the voice 
replied to his appeal. 

In the month of May, 1897, Mr. Wiltshire 
was awakened in the early morning by the 
sound of his own name pronounced by an 
invisible presence. As the voice insisted and 
gave him the impression of immediate and 
threatening danger, he ended by rising and 
going out. He arrived just in time to save the 
life of a young girl who was about to drown 
herself. 

In “La Revue Scientifique et Morale du 
Spiritisme,’ Dr. Breton, a naval surgeon, 
President of the Society of Psychic Studies at 
Nice, reports the following fact : 

‘ Mdlle. Lolla, a young Russian girl, being 
in the country house of her family in Russia, 


194 


AN INSTANCE FROM RUSSIA 


dreamed that she saw her mother enter her 
room, and say to her, ‘ Lolla, do not be afraid, 
but the barn is on fire” On the following 
night, Mdlle. Lolla was suddenly awakened by 
her mother, who, coming into her room, cried, 
‘ Lolla, do not be afraid, the barn is on fire,’ 
the very words which she had heard in her 
dream. Mdlle. Lolla married. She wedded 
M. de R., a Russian officer. Her father-in- 
law died. Some time afterwards, young 
Madame de R. accompanied her mother-in-law 
to the family burial ground in order to 
pray over the tomb of the deceased. While 
kneeling and praying she heard distinctly a 
voice, which said to her: ‘ You also will be 
a widow, but you will not have the consolation 
of coming to pray over the tomb of my 
son.’ 

“The young woman hearing this voice 
fainted. Her mother-in-law came to her 
help, and when the girl revived, she explained 
the reason of her emotion. 

‘The Russo-Japanese War broke out. 
Colonel de R. received the order to go to the 
front. He died in Manchuria. His body, in 
its coffin, was transported with others to 
Mukden before being sent to Russia, but the 
troops who escorted it had to leave it behind 
during the retreat of the Russian Army. In 


0 i195 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


spite of many enquiries they were never able 
to find out what became of this body. 

- “The prophecy, then, of the spirit of the 
father of Colonel de R. came true. The 
young widow never was able to pray over the 
tomb of her husband.” 

In all these cases, then, we have voices with 
prophetic powers, exactly as with Joan. 

Let us now discuss the question of appari- 
tions. Such cases are not rare in our days, 
and occasionally have been confirmed by means 
of photography. 

La Revue of 1§th January, 1909, contains a 
record from Mr. W. T. Stead which relates 
a fact of this nature. The great English 
journalist was as famous for his truthfulness 
as for his unselfish courage. On a matter of | 
principle he was ready to oppose the whole 
of England. One remembers how, at the risk 
of his own personal interests and taking no 
account of the millions which he might in- 
herit from Cecil Rhodes, he dared to state 
publicly that the latter was one of those who 
were responsible for the South African war. 
He even went so far as to demand that he 
should be punished by hard labour. 

In the course of this same war Stead called 
upon a psychic photographer, in order to see 
if he could get some results, for the study of 

196 


W. T. STEAD 


the occult world attracted him strongly. This 
photographer saw a figure enter the room in 
the company of Stead, which figure he had 
already observed some days before in his studio. 
It was agreed that he should try to photograph 
it, together with Stead. Whilst the photo- 
se was being taken the figure, which was 
invisible to human eyes, said clairaudiently 
that his name was Piet Botha. Among the 
Bothas known to Stead there was none who 
had this particular name. On the photograph 
there came out, standing by his side, the 
clearly defined and characteristic figure of 
a Boer. 

When peace was declared, General Botha 
came to London. Stead showed him the 
photograph. Next day he had a call from 
one of the South African delegates, Monsieur 
Wessel. He was much interested, and said to 
Stead : 

‘This man never knew you, for he never 
put foot in England. He is one of my rela- 
tions. I have his portrait at my house.” 

“Is he dead?” asked Stead. 

‘“‘ He was the first Boer Commander killed 
at the siege of Kimberley,” replied his com- 
panion. ‘His name was Petrus Botha, but 
we called him Piet for short.” 

On being shown the photograph the other 


197 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


delegates from the Boer States recognised the 
Boer soldier. 

Sometimes (and it is one of the strongest 
arguments in favour of their truth) visions 
appear to young children who are incapable 
of scheming or fraud, 

The Annals of Psychic Science, February 16th, 
1909, quote many such facts. In one case it 
was a little girl two-and-a-half years old, who 
saw in different places and under different 
circumstances her own little sister, who had 
died some time before, and who was stretching 
out her hands to her. 

In another case a child of three perceived, 
at the moment of her little brother’s death, 
one of her dead aunts, and ran towards her, 
following her about the room. 

Again, one reads in Brierre de Boismont 
(Medico-Psychological Annals, 1851) : 

‘ À young man of eighteen, of a steady, 
normal type, lived for the sake of his health at 
Ramsgate. In a walk to one of the neighbour- 
ing villages he entered a church at nightfall, 
and was struck with terror to see a vision of his 
mother, who had died some months before of a 
lingering and painful illness, which had excited 
pity from all around her. This figure formed 
itself between him and the wall and remained 
for a considerable time motionless. He got 

198 


A PHANTOM 


back to his lodgings dazed with terror. The 
same apparition having appeared in his own 
room for several consecutive nights, he fell ill 
and travelled over to Paris, where his father 
lived. He resolved not to speak to the father 
of the matter for fear of adding to the grief 
which the loss of a beloved wife had already 
brought upon him. 

‘“‘ He was obliged to sleep in the room of his 
father, and was surprised to find a light burning 
there all night. This was contrary to his 
father’s usual habit. After several hours of 
insomnia caused by the glare of this light the 
son got out of bed and extinguished it. The 
father immediately rose in great agitation, and 
ordered him to light it again, which he did, 
very much astonished at the emotion of his 
father and at the signs of terror visible on his 
face. 

“Having asked him what the reason was for 
his trouble, he only received a vague reply, 
and a promise that some day he should be 
told. 

‘ A week after this event the young man, 
being unable to sleep on account of the con- 
stant light, tried for the second time to ex- 
tinguish it, but the father sprang instantly 
from his bed, reproved him for his disobedience, 
and lit the lamp once more. He admitted to 


199 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


him then that every time he was left in dark- 
ness the phantom of his wife appeared before 
him, and remained immovable, standing there 
until the light was again renewed. 

‘This story made a strong impression upon 
the mind of the young man, and fearing to 
increase his father’s trouble by telling him 
his own adventure at Ramsgate, he left Paris 
and went to a town in the interior of France 
sixty miles away, to see his brother, who was 
lodging there, and whom he had not told 
what had happened to him for fear of 
ridicule. 

‘He had hardly entered the house, and 
exchanged the usual salutations when the son 
of the lodging-house keeper said to him: 
‘Has your brother ever shown any sign of 
lunacy? He came down last night in his 
shirt, declaring that he had seen the spirit of 
his mother, and that he dared not go back into 
his room. Then he actually fainted from 
FEAT 

One might add many facts of the same sort, 
all showing visions analogous to those of Joan. 
The dwellers in space neglect no means of 
manifesting themselves and of proving to us 
the reality of survival. The great spirits 
show a marked predilection for the pheno- 
menon of possession, for it allows them to 

200 


IDENTITY 


reveal themselves more completely and to 
display the range of their intellectual power. 
The medium plunged into sleep by an invisible 
magnetic power gives up his body for some 
short period to the spirits who take possession 
of it, and so get into touch with us by voice, 
gesture and bearing. 

Sometimes their language is so suggestive 
and so imposing that one cannot have the 
slightest doubt as to their character, their 
nature, and their identity. If it is easy to 
imitate psychic phenomena, such as tilting 
tables, automatic writing, or visions of phan- 
toms, the same cannot be said of facts which 
belong to the higher intellectual order. One 
cannot imitate talent and, still less, genius. I 
have often been the witness of such scenes, and 
they have left each time a profound impression. 
To live, if it be but for a moment, on intimate 
terms with great beings, is one of the rarest 
joys that one may have upon earth. It is by 
this gift of possession that I myself have been 
able to communicate with spirit guides and 
with Joan herself, and to receive from her the 
details and revelations some of which I have 
been able to incorporate in this work. 

At the same time, if this faculty is a source 
of joy to the experimenter, it gives very little 
satisfaction to the medium himself, for he 

201 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


does not preserve, after awakening, any re- 
membrance of what has passed during his 
absence from his body. 

Mediumship exists in a latent condition 
among very many people. Everywhere around 
us, among young women and young men, 
these subtle faculties lie which may develop 
into ties between the human brain and the 
intelligences of space. What is wanted now 
are schools and methods by which these 
factors may be developed scientifically and 
systematically, and so perfected. The present 
absence of methodical preparation and of 
patient study prevents us from drawing from 
these seeds all the fruits of truth and wisdom 
which they might give. Very often, for want 
of knowledge and of regular development, 
they dry up or produce only poisoned flowers, 
But little by little we see a new science building 
itself up and conveying to all a knowledge of 
the laws which rule the invisible universe. Soon 
we shall learn to cultivate these precious 
faculties, and to turn them into instruments 
for those great souls who carry the secrets 
of the Beyond. 

Experimenters will give up their narrow 
views and their old scientific routine, and will 
endeavour to cultivate the powers of the spirit 
by elevated thought and by high motives so 

202 


HOPE FOR THE FUTURE 


as to join the higher worlds with our inferior 
spheres. ‘Then an illumination from above 
will come to aid their researches. They will 
learn that in the study of great philosophical 
problems moral cultivation and rectitude of 
life are essential conditions of success. 

If science and method are indispensable in 
the case of psychic experiment, a receptive 
attitude of soul by means of prayer is not less 
important, for it constitutes that loving current 
which draws down to us benevolent powers 
and repels evil influences, The whole life of 
Joan demonstrates this. 

On the day when all these conditions are 
observed, the new psychic knowledge will enter 
fully into its own. At a time when so many 
beliefs are wavering and when the human soul 
is sunk in materialism, in the midst of the 
general weakening of character and of con- 
science, it will become a living and active 
faith which will reunite Heaven to Earth and 
draw together souls and worlds in one eternal 
and infinite communion. 


In the French original there follow after the 

biographical chapters several remarkable essays 

upon Joan of Arc, which deal respectively with 

Joan and the idea of fatherland, Joan and the 

idea of religion, Joan and the Celtic spirit, 
203 


ANALOGOUS POWERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 


the portraits of Joan, the military genius of 
Joan, the relation of Joan to the twentieth 
century, and finally Joan as she bears upon that 
modern psychic movement of which Monsieur 
Denis is persuaded that she is the standard- 
bearer. For the other essays the reader may 
be referred to the original, but this last one 
is of so extraordinarily noble and elevated a 
character, and forms so beautiful a piece of 
prose imagery, that the translator hopes that 
even in his English version some reflection of 
its beauty may be obtained, and that the reader, 
whatever his view upon psychic matters, will 
be glad to have it placed before him. As to 
the direct communications, each will form his 
own opinion, but there can be no two opinions 
as to the high aims of the writer, or the beauty 
of his message. 


204 


CHAPTER XV 


JOAN OF ARC AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC 
MOVEMENT 


Tue early days of Christianity were full of 
visions, apparitions, voices, premonitory dreams 
and other evidences of psychic power. The 
faithful drew from such things an overwhelming 
moral force which gave them strength to face 
every danger and torment. Since the most 
remote ages the invisible world has always 
communicated with our own, and a current 
of spiritual life has continually been guided 
down to our terrestrial humanity by prophets 
and mediums. It is this vital influx from 
supernal sources which has been the spring 
of every religion. All have in their origin 
shared this deep essential inspiration. So long 
as they preserved it pure, they kept their 
freshness and their vitality, but they faded away 
and died in exact proportion to the degree of 
separation which came between them and these 
secret sources of strength. 

That is what has happened to orthodoxy. 
It has misunderstood or forgotten the great 

205 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


flood of spiritual power which bathed the 
Christian cult in its early days. It has burned 
by the thousand the agents of the unseen, 
rejected their teachings and silenced their 
voices. ‘The trials for sorcery and the execu- 
tions of the Inquisition have raised a barrier 
between the two worlds, and have stopped for 
centuries that spirit communion which, far 
from being an accidental thing, is really one of 
the fundamental laws of Nature. 

The disastrous results may be traced all 
round us. Religions are now only the dried-up 
branches of a sapless trunk, because the roots are 
no longer in touch with the vital nourishment. 
They still tell us of the survival of the individual 
and of the future life, but they are unable to 
furnish the least actual proof of it. So is it 
also with all systems of philosophy. If faith 
has weakened and if materialism and atheism 
have rapidly increased, if crime and animal 
passion and suicide are all so prevalent, it is 
because the upper life no longer descends to 
fertilise human thought, and because the idea 
of immortality is no longer reinforced by actual 
demonstration. The development of scientific 
thought and of the critical spirit has made 
mankind more and more exacting. Mere 
assertions will no longer content him. He asks 
for facts and proofs. 

206 


MORAL DECAY 


Consider for a moment how overwhelmingly 
important it would be could we formulate a 
science, a revelation, based upon a solid ground- 
work of phenomenal experience, which would 
afford us a definite proof of survival, and at the 
same time demonstrate that justice is not a 
vain phrase—and that each of us finds in the 
Beyond an environment which shall be in 
exact proportion to our own deserts. 

This is precisely what modern Psychic 
Religion does offer. It contains within it the 
seeds of a mental revolution which shall em- 
brace ideas, faiths, opinions and ethics. Hence 
the urgent necessity to study these facts, to 
classify them, to analyse them with care, and 
to note the deductions which may be drawn 
from them. 

The moral state of Society has become 
gravely disquieting. In spite of the spread 
of education crime increases. ‘Theft, murder 
and suicide do not become less common. 
Morals are corrupt. Discontent and dis- 
illusionment sink ever deeper into the heart of 
man. The horizon is dark, and far off one 
hears the low mutterings which seem to be 
threats of a social storm. In nearly every 
class of society journalism has degraded the 
character and the conscience. Ideals seem to 
have faded out of the souls of the people. 

207 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


They say: ‘* Eat, drink, grow richer—all the 
rest is a mere shadow.” ‘There is no God 
but money, no object in life but pleasure. 
Passions, greed, appetites are unrestrained. 
This flood of evil mounts up like a rising wave 
and threatens to submerge the world. 

Still, there are many noble souls who ponder 
over it and who grieve. ‘They feel that matter 
is not all. There are times when humanity 
mourns for the lost ideal and feels the emptiness 
and the instability of worldly things. It is 
borne in upon them that what they are taught 
is insufficient, that life is broader, the world 
more vast, and the Universe more marvellous 
than is supposed. Man searches, experiments, 
and asks. He wants not merely an ideal, but 
rather some certainty which may sustain and 
console him amid the trials and sufferings of 
life. He asks himself what is to be the final 
outcome of this transitional age, which has 
seen the death of so many systems and 
traditions, the dust of which now lies 
around us. 

By its obstinacy in shutting itself up in the 
narrow circle of dogma, and by its refusal to 
enlarge its conception of human destiny and 
of the Universe, orthodox religion has estranged 
the picked brains of humanity, and the majority 
of those whose opinion has real weight in 

208 


PROGRESS TOWARDS TRIUMPH 
the world. The public has followed the 


intellectuals. The eyes of humanity are turned 
towards science. They have long asked from 
it some solution of the problem of existence. 
But science up to now, in spite of its magnificent 
conquests, has been too deeply imbued with 
material theories to furnish man with a 
notion of his position and of the destiny which 
would exalt him, giving him fresh strength and 
inspiration. 

Thus it was that the invisible world, that 
world which the Church has opposed, though 
shrouded in the shadow for centuries, came 
afresh into action. It is now showing its pre- 
sence in every part of the globe, under 
many forms, and by the most varied means. 
It has come to show man the sure and the 
straight way which will lead him to the 
heights. 

Everywhere psychic faculties are disclosing 
themselves, inexplicable phenomena are appear- 
ing. Societies for the study of them, and 
journals to report them are coming into exist- 
ence, each of them a centre of light from which 
these new ideas radiate out into a darkened 
world. These Spiritual Societies are already 
numerous enough to make a chain round our 
planet. Through them, for the last fifty 
years, there has been preparing and germinating 

209 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


those seeds which grow in obscurity but are 
destined to be the flowers of the coming age. 
This is what we call Modern Spiritualism, not 
a religion in the narrow sense of the word, 
but rather a science, a crown of all human 
work and thought, a revelation which will 
draw mankind out of the maze in which it 
has wandered, enlarge its horizon, and draw 
it up to participate in the life of the great 
spaces—the infinite, the universal life. 

The modern psychic movement means the 
study of man, not in his transitory corporal 
form, but in his spirit, in his imperishable 
reality and in his evolution through the ages. 
It is the study of transcendental thought and 
of the inner consciousness, It deals with the 
questions of responsibility and duty, and with 
all the problems of life and death viewed from 
the invisible world as well as from here. It 
means the application of these problems to 
moral progress, the common good and social 
harmony. 

Material life is a passing thing. Our exist- 
ence is but an instant, a dot amid an im- 
mensity. Man is a thinking and self-conscious 
atom upon the globe which sustains him, and 
this globe is itself only an atom moving in a 
boundless Universe. But our future is as 
infinite as that Universe, and the worlds which 

210 


EVOLUTION AND HARMONY 


gleam above our heads at night are part of our 
heritage. 

The modern psychic knowledge teaches us 
to come out from the narrow circle of our 
daily work, and to be in touch with that vast 
field of activity which is open to us. The great 
enigma becomes more simple and the divine 
plan unrolls itself before us. Nature takes on a 
meaning. Ît becomes the wonderful ladder of 
evolution, the stage on which the soul en- 
deavours to shake off matter and to mount 
from the lower, darker life towards the 
light. 

À common harmony unites all those who 
are on the varied rungs of this ladder, or on 
all the different planes of life. Man is no 
longer alone when he strives and suffers in 
the cause of truth and of good. An invisible 
company assist and inspire him, as they did 
Joan of Arc and her brave companions. 

This harmony of the Universe is especially 
noticeable at the present epoch. In hours of 
crisis when souls weaken and when humanity 
stumbles upon its difficult road, the invisible 
world intervenes. Celestial spirits, the mes- 
sengers of space, work with us. They direct 
the sequence of events and stimulate our 
minds. Above all they strive to re-establish 
those broken bonds which should unite the 

P 211 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


two worlds. They say so themselves in these 
terms : 

‘ Listen to our voices, you who strive and 
weep. You have not been abandoned. We 
have striven to establish communication be- 
tween your forgetful world and this world of 
ours which does not forget. We have devised 
a tie which .is still weak, but which will 
become strong. It is mediumship. Soon it 
will no longer be despised and persecuted. 
Men will no longer be able to ignore it. It is 
the only possible intermediary between the 
living and the dead. Now that the door is 
open it will not be closed until troubled man- 
kind has learned to struggle up from the dark- 
ness into the light of heaven.” 


Joun, Disciple of Paul. 


It comes at the right time, this new revela- 
tion, and it assumes the character which the 
spirit of the times calls for—the scientific and 
philosophic spirit. It does not come to destroy 
but to build up. The aid of the spirit world 
will enable us to see into the depths of the 
past as well as of the future. It will raise from 
the dust of centuries forgotten beliefs, and 
will give them new life by completing and 
explaining them. To the dark words ‘ one 

212 


A MESSIAH 


must die,” words of fear and of threat, it will 
add the vital words ‘one must live again.” 
Instead of the terrors inspired by the idea of 
annihilation, or by the fears of hell, it gives us 
joy of the soul, bringing us into an immense, 
radiant and glorious life. ‘To all the despairing 
people upon earth, to the weak, to the dis- 
appointed, it offers the chalice of strength 
filled with the generous wine of hope and 
immortality. 

Let us return to Joan of Arc. It may seem 
that the points discussed have carried us far 
from our subject. It is not really so. ‘These 
considerations help us to understand better 
the missions of Joan. We say ‘ missions,” for 
her actual work, though less apparent, is quite 
as important now as it was in the fifteenth 
century. Let us discuss it. 

What was Joan in reality when she ap- 
peared on the great stage of history? Joan 
was a celestial messenger and, to use the 
expression of Henri Martin, ‘a Messiah.” 
How may we define such terms? Let us 
leave the task to the spirit people themselves. 
Here is what one of our guides says upon 
the point : 

‘ When men have forgotten their duty, 
God sends a messenger to them as an aid, that 
they may fulfil their work here more easily 

213 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


and more earnestly. ‘These are what we call 
Messiahs. At that sad hour when souls sink 
into materialism they demonstrate by their 
inspired voices the truth which calls out to 
mankind. Observe how they always come at 
moments of crisis, when everything spiritual 
seems to be in danger of eclipse from the fogs 
of self-interest and passion. They are like 
the evening breeze which comes to calm the 
tumultuous waves seething from the storms 
of the day. Ask, and divine aid will be given 
to you, even as our Master promised. But do 
not repulse the messenger. Learn to under- 
stand him. He is the ambassador of God and 
he is clothed with the light of His truth, so 
you owe him your respect. 

People cannot always distinguish these higher 
beings or appreciate the loftiness of their souls. 
They picture Messiahs as being different from 
people of flesh and blood, and they do not 
recognise them when they appear. Thus it 
comes about that the messenger of the Lord 
usually ends his celestial mission by supreme 
personal sorrow. Read the records, and you 
will find that all those whom humanity has 
finally honoured have died unnoticed, or else 
have been betrayed and sacrificed, This is 
in order that their mission may also show the 
grandeur of suffering. ‘The last word which 


214 


SENT TO SAVE 


you will find on the lips of the Master and of 
all great martyrs has been: ‘ Pardon them, for 
they are ignorant.’ ”’ 


Jean, The Disciple of Paul. 


Joan was one of these Messiahs sent to save 
people who were in agony, but for whom a great 
future was waiting. France was called to play 
a considerable part in the world. Her history 
has provedit. She had the necessary qualities 
for the task. One might fairly say that though 
some other nations might be more serious, more 
thoughtful and more practical, none possesses 
the heart-qualities and the adventurous gener- 
osity, which has made France the apostle and 
soldier of justice and liberty the whole world 
over. This predestined part could only be 
played by France if she were free, and yet her 
faults had brought her to within imminent 
danger of extinction. Until Joan appeared, 
all Europe believed that the mission of the 
great French nation, the origin of so much that 
was noble, was at an end. She above all others 
had been the origin of chivalry, had promoted 
the Crusades, and had founded the arts of the 
Middle Ages. She had been the first in 
civilisation in the West. And yet all human 
power seemed to have been unable to save this 
glorious country. But that which man could 

215 


JOAN AND 'THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


not do, a high spirit with the invisible world 
behind her was able to accomplish. 

Here a question arises. Why did God 
choose the hand of a woman to draw France 
from the tomb? Michelet has thought that 
it was because France is herself essentially 
feminine—a woman at heart. Or is it, as 
other writers have said, because woman is 
superior to man in certain sentiments—in 
pity, tenderness and enthusiasm ? No doubt 
this is so, and there lies the secret of 
the devotion of woman and of her spirit of 
sacrifice. 

In the fifteenth century, as Henri Martin 
has pointed out, all the energies of the stronger 
sex, the sex formed for the life of action, were 
exhausted. The last reserve of France lay 
in her women, with divine power to sustain 
them. That is why Heaven sent us her 
whom the Voices called “ The Daughter of 
God.” 

But there may be a higher reason. It may 
be that God, making mock of the weakness of 
the strong and the folly of the wise, chose to 
save France by the hand of one who was almost 
a child, in order that when they compared the 
weakness of the instrument with the grandeur 
of the result, mankind could no longer doubt 
that in this work of salvation they saw the 

216 


THE FRUITS OF RESISTANCE 


action of a higher Power and the intervention 
of the Almighty. 

One might then ask, if Joan was a mes- 
senger from Heaven, why so many vicissi- 
tudes and such difficulties in her work of de- 
liverance ? Why these hesitations, intrigues, 
set-backs and these treasons around her ? 

When Heaven intervenes and God sends His 
messengers upon earth, can there be impedi- 
ments and resistance to their action ? 

We touch here the great problem. Above 
all one must realise this—that man is a free 
agent, and that all humanity has responsibility. 
There is no responsibility without liberty. 
Free humanity has to bear the fruits of its 
own actions from age to age. ‘The same beings 
come back from century to century to make 
history and to gather in their new life the 
sweet and bitter fruits of joy or of sorrow, 
which they have sown in their former lives. 
Forgetfulness of the past is only temporary, 
and proves nothing against the law. Humanity 
is free, but freedom without wisdom, without 
reason, without illumination, leads to the 
abyss. ‘The blind man is free, and yet without 
a guide what is his freedom worth to him? 
This is the reason why humanity has always 
needed to be upheld, guided, protected, and 
in some degree inspired by Providence. But 

217 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


it is better that this support should not be too 
obvious, for if a higher Power openly took 
charge, then it would become a constraint. It 
would weaken and even annihilate freedom of 
action. Man would lose the merit due to his 
initiative. He would no longer rise by his 
own merits. The divine end would be frus- 
trated. Hence the difficulty of direct inter- 
vention at every time of trouble. What, then, 
can the messenger from on high, the minister 
of the eternal will, do under these limitations ? 
He cannot impose himself—he can only offer 
himself, so that the individual may remain free 
to determine his own fate. 

This is the explanation of the mission of 
Joan, her triumphs and defeats, her glory and 
her martyrdom. It also explains the law which 
governs spiritual power when it acts upon 
humanity. The influence which God exerts 
upon the earth can only act to the extent that 
humanity receives it. If it is welcomed and 
obeyed, it becomes active and beneficent. If 
it is repulsed it remains powerless. The 
messenger, the Messiah, loses his touch on 
earth. 

Humanity is advancing through the cen- 
turies to conquer the supreme good things— 
truth, justice and love. These good things 
it must reach by its own efforts. It is the 

218 


COMPARISONS WITH CHRIST 


law of its destiny, the very reason for its 
existence. But in hours of trouble, of crisis 
and of reaction, Heaven sends down its 
missionaries to distracted, despairing man- 
kind. 

Joan was one of these. Like all the divine 
messengers she arose among the poor and 
humble. Her infancy has that in common 
with Christ. It is a law of history and a lesson 
from God that the greatest things come from 
below. Christ was the son of a poor carpenter. 
Joan was a peasant girl. These two Messiahs 
chose here neither knowledge nor wealth. 
What need had they for either ? The children 
of this world have need of material power and 
of science to carry out their designs. Messiahs 
have only to accomplish what is preordained. 
They possess inherent force. 

Joan had a double mission which she still 
carries out upon the spiritual side of life. To 
France she brought salvation. To the whole 
world she brought a revelation of the Invisible 
and of the forces which it holds. She brought 
knowledge and a message which will echo down 
the centuries. 

This message was beyond the comprehension 
of the Middle Ages. To bring it to the full, 
four centuries of work and progress were 


needed. That is why the Supreme Will has 
219 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


so arranged it that for four hundred years the 
memory of Joan was obscured by shadows, and 
that now there is a glorious re-awakening. 
To-day this figure reappears radiant from the 
obscurity of the ages. Human thought is 
ready now to understand this problem and to 
investigate this spirit world, the existence of 
which finds its strongest affirmation in the life 
and mission of Joan. 


Joan had her guardians, her spirit guides, 
and it is well to note that on a lower scale the 
same may be said for each of us. Every human 
being has near him an invisible friend who 
helps, comforts, and directs him aright if he 
will but follow the direction. Often they 
are those who have loved us upon earth, a 
father, a vanished mother, a spouse who has 
passed on. Many beings watch over us, and 
try to guard us from the instincts and the 
passions which push us towards evil. Whether 
one calls them our familiar genii, as did the 
Greeks, or our guardian angels, as do the 
Catholics, is of little importance. The fact 
remains that we all have our guides, our secret 
sources of inspiration. All of us have our 
voices. 

But while in the case of Joan these voices 

220 


THE INWARD SHRINE 


were exterior, objective and perceived by the 
senses, in our case they are usually internal, 
intuitive and sounding only in the region of 
our conscience. 

Have you not yourself heard these voices, 
you who read this ? They speak in the silence. 
They tell you what to work for, and how to 
raise yourselves in raising others. Surely you 
have all heard the voice which, within the 
sanctuary of your heart, calls you to duty and 
to sacrifice. When you hear it anew, rouse 
yourselves, elevate your thoughts. Ask and 
you shall receive. Call upon the divine forces. 
Search, study, meditate, that you may be 
initiated into the great mysteries. So by 
degrees you will find new powers stir within 
you. A light unknown to you before will 
descend in waves upon you, the sweet flower 
of hope will open within you and you will 
be filled with that force which gives you 
assurance of the invisible and confidence in 
divine Justice. Then all life will become easy 
to you. Your thoughts, instead of dragging 
sadly in the heavy atmosphere of terrestrial 
doubts and contradictions, will rise above them 
all, and will be enlightened and invigorated 
by inspiration from above. 

One must remember that in each of us lies, 
useless and unproductive, an infinite treasure. 

221 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


There may be apparent barrenness and sad- 
ness, sometimes even disgust of life. But open 
your heart, let the ray shine into it, and then 
a more intense and beautiful life will awaken 
within you. You will take pleasure in a 
thousand things to which you were indifferent 
and which will charm your days. You will 
feel yourself grow stronger, you will walk with 
a firmer step, and your soul will be as a temple 


filled with ight ote and Sn 


Joan of Arc, as we es ae was a messenger 
from the spirit world, one of God’s mediums. 
She realises in our history the highest ideal of 
mediumship. But none the less that which 
she possessed in so eminent a degree may 
become the heritage of many upon a more 
humble scale. 

We have already quoted those prophetic 
words—‘‘ When the time has come I will 
spread my spirit over all flesh. Your young 
people will see visions and your old will dream 
dreams ”’ (Acts 11. 17). 

All seems to indicate that this time is now 
at hand. The prophecy is actually coming 
true, all around us. That which in the past 
was the privilege of a few is becoming more and 
more universal. Already, down in the heart 
of the people, there are signs and portents 

222 


THE ENEMIES 


which point to a new era. Before long all 
that makes for the beauty and grandeur of 
human genius, all the glories of civilisation, 
will be renewed and nourished from this 
immense source of inspiration which will open 
to the spirit of man a boundless field in which 
he may build up that which will eclipse all 
the marvels of the past. All the arts—philo- 
sophy, letters, science, music, and poetry— 
will drink from these springs of inspiration, and 
will be transformed under the all-powerful 
breath of the infinite. 

The mission of the new knowledge, like that 
of Joan, is a mission which is faced with terrible 
obstacles. It is marked by signs, portents, 
and all that can indicate divine sanction. 
Its task is to defeat the enemy, and that enemy 
to-day is the materialist, the pessimist, the cold 
and dark philosophy, which can only lead to 
the selfish search for enjoyment or to despair. 

But it has to walk its ‘ via dolorosa.” It 
is the lot of every new idea. At this moment 
the hour of its trial has come. Like Joan 
before her examiners at Poitiers, the new 
Revelation stands to be judged by the faiths 
and systems of the past, by the theologians 
and the representatives of a narrow conven- 
tional science. Against her are ranked all the 
authorities, all the champions of old and in- 

223 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


complete ideas, ideas which have become in- 
adequate to the needs of mankind and which 
must yield to the new impulse which claims 
its place in the world. 

At the present time this solemn trial is 
taking its course before an interested humanity, 
whose own future fate is involved in the verdict. 
What will that verdict be? Doubt is impossible 
to those who know the facts. How can one 
hesitate between the young growing idea and 
the stale systems which weaken with the years. 
Humanity must live, prosper, and increase, 
and it is not among ruins that it can find 
its abiding-place. 

The new knowledge stands before the 
tribunal of public opinion. It addresses the 
churches and the powers of this world, and 
it says to them : 

‘You have in your hands all the means of 
action which secular authority can give you, 
and yet you can do nothing against material- 
ism, crime, and immorality, which spread like 
a foul ulcer. You are impotent to save 
humanity in its hour of danger. Do not 
remain deaf, then, to the appeals of this new 
spiritual force, for it brings you the power you 
need for the regeneration of Society. Appeal 
to all that is great and beautiful in the soul of 
man and say to him: 

224 


A LASTING INFLUENCE 


‘Raise yourself! Elevate your aspirations, 
O human soul! Advance with confidence 
towards your glorious future. The infinite 
powers will help you, nature will be your ally 
in the work, the stars in their courses will 
light your path. 

‘Advance, human soul, strong in the 
powers which lie behind you! Go, like 
Joan in her battles, to face the world of 
matter and the play of passions. At your 
call Society will change and ancient forms 
will dissolve to give place to new combina- 
tions, and younger organisations richer in light 
and in life.’ ” 


As to Joan, her influence has persisted in 
the world after her leaving it. It is by that 
influence that France was delivered from the 
English, not in one single campaign, nor by 
a steady process like the rise of the tide, as 
might have been the case had all men had the 
same confidence and faith as she, but after 
many vicissitudes and alternations of failure 
and success. The soul of Joan, so full of love 
and of desire for good, could not remain 
quiescent in eternal beatitude. At the present 
moment she is returning to us with another 
mission, in order to do upon the spiritual and 
moral plane, over a larger field, that which 

| 225 


JOAN AND THE MODERN PSYCHIC MOVEMENT 


she did for France upon the material plane. 
She sustains and inspires the acolytes of 
the new faith and all those who bear in 
their hearts an unconquerable confidence in 
the future. 

Know, then, that a revolution greater than 
any ever known in the world has begun, a 
peaceful and: regenerating revolution. It will 
tear human routine out of its age-long ruts 
and will raise the thoughts of man to the 
splendid destiny which awaits him. 

The great souls of the past will reappear 
among us. Their voices will be heard again. 
They will exhort mankind to hasten its march, 
And the soul of Joan is one of the most powerful 
amid that band who work upon the world, 
preparing a new era for humanity. This is 
the reason why fresh light is given us at present 
upon the character of Joan and her mission. 
By her aid and that of the great spirits who 
are with her the hopes of those who aspire 
to good and seek for justice will be fulfilled. 

The radiant band of these spirits whose 
names shine down the vistas of history, the 
great initiates of the past, the prophets of 
every nation, the messengers of truth, all 
are joined in the work. But above all is 
Joan, exhorting us to fresh effort. All cry 
to us: 

226 


THE IDEALS 


“Up! Not for the clash of swords as of 
old, but for the struggles of the soul. Up! to 
resist an invasion more deadly than that of the 
foreigner, to hold off materialism, sensualism, 
the abuse of pleasure, the ruin of the ideal— 
everything, in fact, which depresses, enervates 
and enfeebles us. Up! to work and strive for 
intellectual safety and the regeneration of 
our race and of humanity.” 


This great soul floats above us. On many 
occasions she has been able to make herself 
audible and to say what she thought of the 
reasons which have brought her back to us, 
and the nature of the forces which have 
sustained her. Yielding to prayer she has 
consented to sum up all her thoughts in a 
message which we reproduce, as in duty 
bound, with scrupulous fidelity. It is the most 
worthy conclusion which can be given to this 
essay. 


Q 227 


A MESSAGE 


‘SwerT is the communion with those who 
love our Lord and Father even as I do. I 
am not saddened by the vision of the past, for 
it draws me to you, and my remembrance of 
my communion with the holy dead makes 
me the sister and the comrade of all those to 
whom God has granted the favour of knowing 
the secret of life and death. 

I return thanks to God for permitting me 
to draw close to you, and to tell those who 
know a little that the lives which God gives 
us must be used wisely if we are to be in His 
grace. All life should be sweet and welcome 
which enables us to do the task assigned to 
us by the All-powerful Father and Judge. 
We should bless all that comes from His 
hand. 

He has always chosen the weak to carry out 
His plans, for He can give strength to the lamb, 
even as He promised. He brings truth under 
the most changing forms, but all cannot under- 
stand His purpose. Submissive to His laws 
and trying to follow them, I have not always 

228 


A MESSAGE 


understood them. I knew, however, that the 
sweet counsels which He gave me could not 
be the work of an enemy, and the comfort 
which they have always given me has been a 
stay in trouble and a heart’s joy. I never 
knew what was the deeper design of the Lord. 
He hid from me in all His messages the dreadful 
end which I was to endure, having pity on 
my weakness and on my shrinking from pain, 
but when the time did come, He gave me 
strength and courage. 

I love to think of the hours when first I 
heard the Voices. I cannot say that I was 
afraid. JI was greatly astonished to find myself 
the subject of the Divine Mercy. I knew 
instantly that they were the messengers of 
God, and I felt a great sweetness in my heart 
whilst the holy Voice rang in my ears, It is 
not possible for me to tell you exactly how 
I felt, for I could not describe the deep peace 
and joy, so that when they ceased I felt that 
I was the child of God and of Heaven. I 
feebly comprehended that their will should 
be mine, but though overjoyed at their 
coming, I was surprised at the orders they 
gave and feared a little to execute them. 
It did certainly seem a fine work to save 
our France, but how was a girl to go among 
men-at-arms? Finally, in their sweet and 

229 


A MESSAGE 


constant companionship I came to have more 
confidence in myself, and the love which I 
had ever had for God guided my conduct, 
for it cannot be right to rebel against the 
will of a Father. 

It was a hard task, and yet I had joy in 
obeying, and I set forth to do the Will of God. 
IT am happy that I followed His orders, and 
I pardon those who were the instruments of 
my death, for I know that it was not out of 
hatred for my spirit that they set it free, but 
because they hated the work that I had 
done. 

This work had been blessed by God, and, 
therefore, they were deeply in the wrong, but, 
like them, I have no hatred for their spirits. 
J am only the enemy of all that God condemns, 
of falseness and wickedness, It is their work 
which is evil. They return to it ever, but 
the remembrance of their past cannot be 
effaced by them. I mourn for the hatreds 
which they have encouraged among those who 
should be brothers, and for the evil weeds which 
they have sown in the Church, which have 
caused this Mother whom I once cherished to 
devote herself rather to theology than to 
charity. It is pleasing to me to see that they 
improve and admit to some extent their error, 
but things have never been as I should have 

230 


A MESSAGE 


wished them, and my love for the Church 
turns more and more away from this ancient 
guide of souls in order to give itself more 
completely to our sweet and gracious Lord.” 
JEHANNE. 


231 


TRANSLATOR’S NOTE 


THE foregoing document has been difficult 
to reproduce, as it is written in French, 
which both in idiom and in construction 1s 
reminiscent of the Middle Ages. The sen- 
tences, too, are longer and more involved— 
sometimes more obscure—than the short, lucid 
style < of Monsieur Denis, From the point of 
view of an English Spiritualist, it is an interest- 
ing claim which Monsieur Denis makes, when 
he asserts that Joan of Arc is one of the leaders 
upon the other side in bringing fresh religious 
truth to mankind. Spiritualists have always 
held that the movement is an organised one, 
and that the same great spirits which were 
once notable upon earth are still leaders among 
their fellows, and busy in the glorious work 
of bringing fuller information to mortals. 
These leaders are often those who have actually 
played a part in the long fight from 1848 
onwards, during which the new knowledge, 
amid much misrepresentation and persecution, 
has gradually spread. These souls, whom we 
have known in life, can be more easily identified, 
232 


TRANSLATOR’S NOTE 


but we have long been aware that behind them 
were Other and greater powers who were using 
them as instruments. Monsieur Denis’ thesis 
that among these is the beautiful and unsel- 
fish spirit of Joan of Arc is a deeply interesting 
one, It should be added that it has received 
some corroboration among our own mediums, 
and that the appearance of a maid in shining 
armour is one of the visions which has again 
and again been reported by our clairvoyants, 
who had heard nothing of the views of Monsieur 
Denis. 


233 


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